BS  2651  .K6  1905  c.l 
Knowling,  R.  J. 
The  testimony  of  St.  Paul  to 
Christ. 


THE  TESTIMONY  OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 


BOYLE   LECTURES    1903-5 


THE 

TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL 
TO    CHRIST 

VIEWED    IN    SOME    OF    ITS    ASPECTS 


R.    J.    KNOWLING,    D.D. 

r^yON  OF  DURHAM,  AND  PROFESSOR  OF  DIVINITY  IN  THE   UNIVERSITY  OF  DURHAM  J 
FELLOW    OF    king's   COLLEGE,    LONDON 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

153-157    FIFTH   AVENUE 

1905 


Printed  by  Hazell,  Watson  <?=  Viney,  Ld.,  London  and  Ayltsbury,  England. 


PREFACE 

THE  following  pages,  whilst  they  make  no  pre- 
tension to  exhaust  a  great  subject,  represent  an 
earnest  endeavour  to  emphasise  the  permanent  interest 
and  significance  of  St.  Paul's  testimony  to  Christ. 

It  may  perhaps  seem  needless  to  have  referred 
from  time  to  time  to  the  theories  of  Dr.  Van  Manen, 
but  two  reasons  for  this  may  be  given  :  (i)  that  an 
attempt  has  been  made  to  deal  with  such  theories 
at  first  hand  ;  (2)  that  these  theories  have  not  only 
been  popularised  in  Germany  during  the  past  year 
by  a  certain  Pastor  Kalthoff,  but  also  in  England  by 
J.  M.  Robertson  in  Pagan  Christ s,  and  by  the  publica- 
tions of  the  Rationalist  Press  Association. 

With  regard  to  the  second  series,  it  may  be  well 
to  add  that  the  testimony  of  St.  Paul  to  the  facts 
and  teaching  of  the  Gospels  is  worked  out  on  lines 
different  from  those  pursued  in  the  Witness  of  the 
Epistles,  as  it  is  here  considered  in  relation  to  each 
group  of  the  Apostle's  letters. 

The  last  chapter  of  the  whole  book  is  devoted 
to  the  study  of  some  recent  literature  which  has 
appeared  during  the  writer's  tenure  of  the  Boyle 
Lectureship,  and  it  has  seemed  best  to  treat  such 
literature  with  some  fulness,  as  it  has  been  of 
marked  importance.  It  has  included,  e.g.-,  four  mono- 
graphs   by   German    writers    of  distinction — Bousset, 


vi  PREFACE 

Weinel,  Wernle,  Wre.de,  and  a  Life  of  St.  Paul  by 
C.  Clemen,  which  claims  to  be  the  most  scientific 
of  the  kind  since  the  time  of  Hausrath.  In  France 
we  have  had  a  full  and  important  work  by  M.  Goguel, 
UApotre  Paul  et  Jdsus  Christ,  reminding  us  in  some 
respects  of  the  still  more  important  German  work  by 
Dr.  P.  Feine,  Jesus  Christus  und  Paulus,  1902. 
America  has  given  us  Professor  Bacon's  Story  of 
St.  Paid,  whilst  amongst  English  books  bearing  upon 
our  subject  we  have  had  Dr.  H.  A.  Kennedy's 
St.  Paul's  Conceptions  of  the  Last  Things.  To  these 
and  other  publications  references  will  be  found  in  the 
index. 

The  Boyle  Lectures  for  1903-5  were  delivered  in 
the  Church  of  St.  Edmund,  King  and  Martyr, 
Lombard  Street,  by  the  permission  of  the  Rector, 
Canon  Benham.  Many  passages  of  length  were 
omitted  in  delivery,  as  being  more  fitted  for  theo- 
logical students ;  whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  some 
popular  illustrations  have  retained  a  place  in  the 
Lectures,  in  view  of  the  varied  character  of  the 
audience  to  which  an  appeal  was  made. 

For  the  same  reason,  in  many  of  the  earlier 
Lectures  great  stress  is  laid  upon  St.  Paul's  con- 
ception of  our  Lord's  Person,  and  upon  the  language 
which  the  Apostle  employs  in  his  earliest,  no  less 
than  in  his  latest,   Epistles. 

In  each  series  constant  allusions  will  be  found  to 
the  Encyclopcedia  Biblica,  the  last  volume  of  which 
appeared  during  the  delivery  of  the  first  course  of  the 
Lectures. 

September,  1905. 


CONTENTS 

FIRST   SERIES— 1903 
The  Documents 

Lecture  Page 

I.       INTRODUCTORY      .......  3-16 

II.       I    AND    2    THESSALONIANS  :    GALATIANS .            .            .  ^7-33 

III.  GALATIANS  {continued) ......  34-50 

IV.  I    AND    2    CORINTHIANS:    ROMANS.            .            .            .  51-? 2 
V.       EPISTLES    OF   THE    FIRST   IMPRISONMENT           .            .  73-93 

VI.     (continued)  ........  94-120 

VII.      PASTORAL   EPISTLES 12I-I47 

VIII.      THE    ACTS    OF   THE    APOSTLES            ....  148-176 

SECOND   SERIES— 1904 
St.  Paul's  Testimony  in  Relation  to  the  Gospels 

Lecture  Page 

IX.     ST.  Paul's  conversion 179-199 

X.       HIS     TESTIMONY    TO     THE     FACTS     AND    TEACHING 

OF   THE   GOSPELS  ......  20O-228 

XI.       I    AND    2    THESSALONIANS    AND    THE   GOSPELS            .  229-248 

vii 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 


Lecture 

XII.  GALATIANS    AND   THE   GOSPELS 

XIII.  I    AND    2    CORINTHIANS    AND   THE   GOSPELS    . 

XIV.  {continued)  ....... 

XV.  ROMANS   AND    THE   GOSPELS  .... 

XVI.  THE   LATER   EPISTLES   AND    THE   GOSPELS 


Page 
249-265 

266-286 

287-310 

311-327 
328-350 


THIRD   SERIES— 1905 

St,  Paul's  Testimony  in  Relation  to  the 
Life  of  the  Church 

Lecture  Page 

XVII.       THE    FIRST   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY  .  .  .  353-372 

XVIII.       APOSTOLIC    COUNCIL  :    THE     SECOND     MISSIONARY 

JOURNEY        373-396 

XIX.      THE   THIRD    MISSIONARY  JOURNEY  .  .  .  397-42 1 

XX.       JERUSALEM  :    ROME         ......  422-442 

XXI.       ST.    PAUL    AND    PERSONAL    DEVOTION       .  .  .  443-458 

XXII.      ST.    PAUL   AND   SOCIAL    LIFE 459-473 

XXIII.  ST.    PAUL   AND    MISSIONARY   WORK  .  .  .  474-495 

XXIV.  RECENT    LITERATURE     ......  496-528 


First   Series 
The    Documents 


LECTURE    I 

INTRODUCTORY 

IN  the  second  and  third  course  of  these  lectures  an 
attempt  will  be  made  to  estimate  the  value  of  St.  Paul's 
testimony  in  relation  to  (i)  the  Life  of  the  Gospels ; 
(2)  the  Life  of  the  Church.  But  before  making  this 
attempt,  it  will  be  necessary  for  us  to  say  something,  in 
this  first  course  of  lectures,  as  to  the  validity  of  the 
documents  upon  which  the  above  relationships  must  be 
based,  and  as  to  the  significance  of  the  language  which 
these  documents  contain. 

We  turn,  first  of  all,  to  the  Epistles  which  bear  the  name 
of  St.  Paul  ;  and  here  we  enter  upon  an  examination  of 
a  portion  of  the  New  Testament  with  regard  to  which  very 
decisive  results  have  been  obtained  by  conservative  and 
advanced  critics  alike,  so  far  as  the  question  of  authorship 
is  concerned. 

In  the  opening  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 
Pastoral  Epistles  w^ere  alone  rejected  by  Eichhorn  ;  to-day 
the  same  Epistles  are  the  only  ones  which  nearly  every 
section  of  advanced  critics  rejects,  although  even  here  we 
may  note  very  considerable  modifications. 

The  other  ten  Epistles  which  bear  the  name  of  St.  Paul 
are  treated  by  Harnack  as  genuine,  although  he  hesitates 
to  pronounce  a  positive  judgment  with  regard  to  one  of 
them,  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.  Dr.  Deissmann 
evidently  is  content  to  take  up  the  same  position,  and  so, 

3 


4        TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

too,  Jiilicher,  another  German  critic,  whose    writings    have 
gained  considerable  influence  in   England/ 

It  is  superfluous  to  turn  to  the  more  positive  and 
unhesitating  acceptance  of  the  same  Epistles  by  great 
conservative  critics,  as,  e.g.,  Dr.  B.  Weiss  and  Dr.  Zahn. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  doubts  were 
also  raised  against  the  two  of  those  ten  Epistles  which  are 
still  attacked  very  keenly  to-day  (although  by  no  means  so 
widely  as  the  Pastorals),  2  Thessalonians  and  Ephesians. 
There  was  a  time  when  it  was  almost  an  axiom  of  advanced 
critics  to  reject  2  Thessalonians,  whilst  accepting  i  Thessa- 
lonians. But  now  we  find  Jiilicher  pronouncing  in  favour 
of  the  second  Epistle  as  well  as  of  the  first,  and  Harnack 
and  Clemen  accepting  them  both.  In  America,  representa- 
tive writers  like  McGiffert  and  Bacon  have  accepted 
St.  Paul  as  the  author  of  both  Epistles,  and  in  England  the 
Unitarian  writer.  Dr.  Drummond. 

How  difficult  it  is,  even  for  those  who  dispute  the  Pauline 
authorship,  to  rid  themselves  entirely  of  the  belief  that  Paul 
had  some  share  in  the  second  of  the  two  letters  may  be 
seen  in  the  ingenious  attempt  of  one  of  the  most  acute 
of  modern  German  critics,  F.  Spitta,  to  attribute  2  Thessa- 
lonians to  Timothy,  by  this  means  accounting,  as  he 
thinks,  for  the  differences  between,  as  also  the  agreements 
with,  the  Pauline  character  of  the  document." 

It  is  true  that  the  present  year  has  brought  another 
attack  upon  this  same  Epistle  from  Wrede  of  Breslau  "^  But 
he  seems  to  me  to  ignore  the  force  of  the  external  evidence 
for  this  Epistle,  which  is  very  considerable,  as  we  shall  see 
when  we  come  to  examine  it. 

'  In  Lecture  XXIV.  reference  will  be  found  to  the  more  recent 
utterances  of  Clemen  in  his  Paulus,  of  Von  Soden  in  Urchristliche 
Literaturgeschichte,  1905,  and  of  Wrede  and  Vischer  in  the  little 
popular  books  which  are  now  in  course  of  publication  in  Germany. 

^  Zur  Geschichte  und  Liter atur  des  Urchristentutn,  p.  127. 

^  See,  on  this,  Lecture  II. 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

With  regard  to  Ephesians,  we  shall  also  consider  the 
evidence  at  length  on  a  later  occasion  ;  but  it  may  be  noted 
here  that  Jiilicher  declines  to  pronounce  against  it,  that 
Harnack  considers  that  the  dismissal  of  the  doubts  raised 
against  Colossians  goes  a  long  way  to  render  possible  the 
acceptance  of  Ephesians,  and  that  in  the  latest  edition 
of  Meyer's  Commentary  in  1902  Eric  Haupt  concludes  that 
the  difficulties  which  surround  Ephesians  are  far  more  easily 
solved  on  the  supposition  of  its  genuineness,  whilst  in 
America  Professor  Bacon  makes  the  following  significant 
statement  in  the  preface  to  his  New  Testament  Introduction 
published  last  year :  "  In  the  writings  which  name  their 
authors,  independent  study  has  led  me  to  results  more 
conservative  than  those  of  leading  critics.  Thus  the  cos- 
mology of  Ephesians  appears  to  me  essentially  Pauline." 

In  face  of  the  very  generally  received  results  with 
respect  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Colossian  Epistle,  it 
appears  to  me  most  misleading  on  the  part  of  Professor 
Schmiedel  to  cast  doubt  upon  the  notice  with  regard  to 
St.  Luke  which  that  Epistle  contains,  on  the  ground  that 
its  genuineness  is  by  no  means  free  from  doubt,  whilst 
he  admits  in  the  next  paragraph  that  even  when  the 
Epistle  is  not  accepted  as  a  whole,  there  is  a  disposition,  for 
the  most  part,  to  regard  the  personal  notices  in  iv.  7- 15 
as  a  genuine  fragment.^  But  Schmiedel  is  writing  an 
article  on  "  Luke,"  and  if,  as  he  himself  admits,  the  notice 
in  the  Colossian  Epistle  relating  to  Luke  is  contained  in  a 
genuine  fragment  of  Paul's  writings,  what  more  can  we 
want?   (cf   Col.  iv.    14,  "Luke,  the  beloved  physician"). 

If  we  desired  a  further  proof  of  the  anxiety  of  advanced 
critics  to  minimise  the  evidence  for  the  growing  acceptance 
of  the  large  majority  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  we  can  find  it  in 
a  concise  Bible  Dictionary  just  published  in  Germany,  giving 
us  professedly  the  result  of  the  most  recent  criticism.  The 
'  Art.  "  Luke  "  in  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iii.  2830. 


/ 


6        TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

author  of  the  article  "  Paul  "  is  prepared  to  accept  seven  of 
the  Apostle's  Epistles,  but  even  in  doing  so  he  cannot 
refrain  from  reminding  us  that  doubts  have  been  raised 
against  some  of  these.^  The  question,  however,  is  not 
whether  doubts  have  been  raised,  but  whether  they  have 
been  quelled,  and  this  we  may  fairly  maintain  with  regard 
to  such  an  Epistle  as  that  to  the  Philippians. 

On  the  whole,  we  shall,  I  think,  recognise  that  in  this 
matter  at  all  events  the  author  of  the  article  on  New  Testa- 
ment criticism  in  Contentio  Veritatis  (p.  222)  has  correctly 
gauged  the  position  in  penning  such  words  as  these  :  "  When 
we  pass  to  the  Pauline  Epistles,  we  find  that  the  twentieth 
century  opens  with  a  very  wide  agreement  as  regards  their 
genuineness."  And  this  is  said  not  with  a  forgetfulness,  but 
with  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  various  exceptions  to 
which   I   have  referred. 

But  while  there  is  so  much  on  the  whole  which  is  reassur- 
ing in  the  criticism  to  which  St.  Paul's  Epistles  have  been 
exposed,  it  is  impossible  altogether  to  ignore  the  fact  that 
attacks  are  being  made  at  the  present  time  even  on  the  four 
Epistles,  Romans,  i  and  2  Corinthians,  and  Galatians,  which 
Baur  and  Renan  received,  and  which  all  but  a  small  fraction 
of  the  most  radical  critics  accept  to-day. 

This  latest  phase — one  is  almost  tempted  to  .say  craze — of 
modern  criticism  has  a  history,  although  a  brief  one.  It  is 
not,  however,  without  names  of  some  interest,  as,  e.g.,  that  of 
its  early  supporter  the  blind  Dutch  critic,  A.  D.  Loman, 
the  first,  according  to  his  admirer  Van  Manen,  who  treated 
the  Pauline  question  in  a  strictly  scientific  form. 

It  strikes  one  as  strange,  of  course,  that  the  Church  should 
have  been  for  so  many  centuries  in  such  complete  and  un- 
scientific ignorance.  But  although  Van  Manen  is  not 
altogether  unmindful  of  the  labours  of  Loman's  predecessors, 
e.g.  Bruno  Bauer,  who  made  a  clean  sweep,  like  Van  Manen 

'  Art.  "  Paulus  "  in  Guthe's  Kurzes  Bibelwdrterbuch,  p.  506  (1903), 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

himself,  of  the  genuineness  of  all  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  or  of 
those  of  the  Englishman  Evanson,  who,  writing  in  1792, 
rejected  the  Epistle  to  the  Romstns  (although  even  Evanson 
does  not  seem  to  have  disputed  i  and  2  Corinthians  and 
Galatians),  he  does  not  apparently  rank  these  preliminary 
and  earlier  efforts  as  "  scientific,"  whilst  he  regrets  that  they 
have  received  such  slight  and  inadequate  attention. 

But  Van  Manen  differs  from  Loman  very  materially  in 
his  own  critical  procedure,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  both 
writers  can  claim  to  stand  equally  and  similarly  on  scientific 
grounds.  Van  Manen,  e.g.  in  his  earlier  days  at  all  events, 
could  not  agree  with  Loman's  symbolical  representation  of 
the  Gospel  history,  and  he  still  demurs  to  Loman's  appeal  to 
external  evidence  on  the  ground  "  that  none  of  the  so-called 
external  evidences  are  available  here  ;  internal  evidence  alone 
must  speak  the  last  and  conclusive  word "  (Art.  "  Paul," 
Encycl.  Bibl.,  iii.  3624). 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  see  that  this  dislike  of  all 
external  evidence  is  not  altogether  surprising.  But  so  far 
as  we  in  England  are  concerned,  the  whole  subject  has 
gained  a  fresh  and  recent  interest  from  the  elaborate 
publication  of  Van  Manen's  views  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl., 
and  from  the  laudatory  review  of  his  works  in  the  first 
number  of  the  Hibbert  Journal  by  his  American  follower, 
W.  B.  Smith. 

Now  there  are,  no  doubt,  very  different  ways  in  which 
criticism  of  this  kind  may  be  met  : 

(i)  By  frankly  ignoring  it.  This  is  the  attitude  taken 
up  by  Dr.  Sanday  in  his  allusion  to  it  at  the  Northampton 
Church  Congi'ess  last  year  (1902). 

(2)  By  showing  how  signally  it  fails  to  commend  itself  to 
other  advanced  German  and  Continental  critics,  who  might 
be  supposed  to  be  more  or  less  in  sympathy  with  anything 
so  destructive  of  old-established  positions.  But  it  is  treated 
with  very  scant  ceremony,  and  often  passed  over  in  silence, 


8        TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

by  Holtzmann,  Jiilicher/  to  say  nothing  of  great  conserva- 
tive critics  like  Zahn  and  B.  Weiss,  whilst  even  in  Holland 
itself  Dr.  Baljon,  who  always  speaks  with  the  greatest 
respect  of  Van  Manen,  is  totally  unable  to  agree  with  him 
on  the  issues  raised." 

(3)  By  submitting  such  criticisms  to  the  test  of  the 
evidence,  both  external  and  internal,  by  which  every  book 
of  the   Bible   must   to-day  be  judged.^ 

As  we  have  already  intimated,  Van  Manen  avowedly  does 
not  care  to  lay  much  stress  upon  external  evidence  ;  nay, 
he  tells  us  that  for  the  inquiry  in  hand  external  evidence 
is  of  no  avail ;  everything  must  turn  on  internal  evidence. 
We  have,  however,  no  objection  to  take  him  at  his  word 
and  to  test  his  attacks  by  an  examination  of  the  actual 
contents  of  the  Epistles,  i.e.  by  their  internal  evidence.  But 
it  is,  of  course,  easy  to  see  that  to  ignore  external  evidence 
is  to  get  rid,  by  a  short  and  easy  method,  of  much  that  may 
prove  very  troublesome,  and  that  with  all  external  data 
removed  a  boundless  field  is  open  to  the  play  of  individual 
and  arbitrary  fancy. 

Now  in  dealing  with  the  possibilities  of  any  existing 
external  evidence.  Van  Manen  has  certainly  the  courage  of 
his  opinions.  He  tells  us  that  none  of  the  letters  which 
bear  the  name  of  St.  Paul  were  written  by  the  Apostle. 
How,  then,  does  he  deal  with  the  testimony  borne  to 
these  Epistles  by  the  writings  of  St.  Clement  of  Rome,  of 
St.  Polycarp,  of  St.  Ignatius  ? 

Here  we  have  the  names  of  three  famous  Apostolic 
Fathers,  whose  writings  have  been  tested  and  accepted  not 
only     by     Lightfoot    and     Zahn,    but     also     by     Harnack. 

'  Clemen,  in  his  more  recent  Paulus,  subjects  it  to  a  long  examina- 
tion (Bd.  i.  12  fif),  but  declines  altogether  to  accept  it. 

^  Bousset's  little  book  Was  wissen  wir  vo7i  Jesus  ?  pp.  18-24  (^904)' 
also  contains  an  energetic  attack  on  the  Dutch  theories. 

'  See  in  this  connection  Dr.  Lock's  valuable  paper  on  New  Testa- 
ment Criticism  read  at  Liverpool  Church  Congress,  1904. 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  tl^at  not  only  do  we  find 
references  in  their  writings  to  nearly  every  one  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  but  that  their  early  date  absolutely  forbids  us  to 
place  the  Epistles  at  the  date  demanded  by  Steck,  Volter, 
and  Van  Manen. 

It  may  be  alleged,  perhaps,  that  these  Apostolic  Fathers 
were  not  quoting  from  our  canonical  Epistles,  but  from 
the  fragments  and  sayings  of  which  our  canonical  letters 
are  said  to  be  composed. 

Now  such  a  supposition,  of  course,  begs  the  whole  question 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  contents  of  the  letters  in  question  ; 
it  presents,  moreover,  a  strange  series  of  improbabilities.  It 
would  require  us  to  believe  that  a  whole  number  of  frag- 
mentary letters  written  by  unknown  authors,  but  at  the 
same  time  proceeding  from  one  and  the  same  circle  of 
thinkers,  had  gained  such  value  and  influence  in  the  Church 
as  to  mould  the  language  of  men  like  Clement,  Polycarp, 
Ignatius  in  different  parts  of  the  Christian  world,  and 
that  these  fragments  had  further  been  not  only  used,  but 
incorporated,  by  some  unknown  writer  or  writers,  into  the 
canonical  Epistles  attributed  by  the  Church  to  no  less  a 
person   than    St.    Paul,   the  great   Gentile   Apostle. 

But  so  far  as  the  evidence  in  our  possession  goes,  there 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  these  Epistles,  as  we  have  them, 
are  materially  different  from  their  original  form.  No  doubt 
the  writings  in  question  present  difficulties  both  of  text  and 
context ;  but  "  it  is  clear,"  says  B.  Weiss  with  great  force 
(and  no  one  has  examined  the  text  of  the  Pauline  Epistles 
with  greater  care),  "  that  if  one  does  not  understand  how 
this  or  that  passage  fits  into  the  connection,  it  is  far  more 
difficult  to  conceive  how  an  interpolator  could  come  to 
interrupt  a  lucid  text  with  interpolations  alleged  to  be  so 
incongruous."  ^ 

'  Inquiry  concerning  the  Genuineness  of  the  Pauline  Epistles, 
P-  5  (1897). 


10      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

But  it  is  of  interest  to  turn  back  to  the  earliest  piece 
of  positive  external  evidence.  St.  Clement  of  Rome  is  the 
earliest  of  the  three  Apostolic  Fathers  we  have  named,  and 
we  may  place  him  93-7.  It  should  be  carefully  noted 
that  this  is  the  date  fixed  upon  by  Harnack. 

What  does  St.  Clement  tell  us  ? 

In  the  opening  paragraph  of  chapter  xlvii.  of  his 
Epistle  we  read  :  "  Take  up  the  Epistle  of  the  blessed  Paul 
the  Apostle.  What  wrote  he  first  unto  you  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Gospel  ?  Of  a  truth  he  charged  you  in  the 
Spirit  concerning  himself  and  Cephas  and  Apollos,  because 
that  even  then  ye  had  made  parties." 

To  appreciate  the  force  of  this  we  must  remember  that 
St.  Clement  is  writing  to  the  same  Church  as  that  to  which 
St.  Paul's  own  Epistle  purports  to  be  addressed,  the  Church 
at  Corinth  ;  and  long  ago  Paley  pointed  out  with  his 
usual  robust  commonsense  that  this  was  written  {viz. 
Clement's  Epistle)  at  a  time  when  probably  some  must  have 
been  living  in  Corinth  who  remembered  St.  Paul's  ministry 
there,  and  the  receipt  of  this  Epistle,  and  that  the  testimony 
is  still  more  valuable,  as  it  shows  that  the  Epistles  were 
preserved  in  the  Churches  to  which  they  were  sent,  and  that 
they  were  spread  and  propagated  from  thence  to  the  rest 
of  the  Christian  community  (Paley,  H.P.,  xvi.  i). 

This  one  passage  from  St.  Clement  is  enough,  in  Professor 
Schmiedel's  view,  to  guarantee  the  authorship  and  early 
date  not  only  of  one,  but  of  the  four  great  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  which  the  Germans  classed  as  the  Hauptbriefe  ;  viz. 
Romans,  i  and  2  Corinthians,  and  Galatians.^ 

How  does  Van  Manen  meet  this  evidence  ?  He  falls 
back  upon  the  idea  that  St.  Clement  was  quoting  from  a 
shorter  and  not  our  canonical  text — a  mere  assumption,  and, 
as  I  venture  to  think,  an  assumption  which  shows  plainly 
the  weakness  of  his  case. 

'  Art.  "Galatians,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  ii.  1622. 


INTRODUCTORY  ll 

Let  us  take  one  or  two  other  instances  of  the  pecu- 
Har  manner  in  which  Van  Manen  deals  with  external 
evidence. 

It  is  surprising  to  find  that,  after  rejecting  Clement, 
Ignatius,  Polycarp,  and  other  remains  of  early  Christian 
literature,  he  accepts  the  Apology  of  Aristides,  and  places 
it  probably  between  125  and  130,  and  regards  it,  if  not  as 
delivered  before  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  yet  as  coming  to  us 
from  Aristides.  In  it  he  finds  points  of  contact  with  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  especially  with  Romans.  Now 
according  to  Van  Manen,  the  date  of  Romans  is  not  far 
from  120  A.D.  But  how  is  it,  then,  that  this  Epistle, 
which  had  only  just  gained  any  status  in  the  Christian 
Church,  could  have  so  influenced  Aristides  some  ten 
years  later  that  he  should  make  use  of  it  in  a  defence 
of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  although  it  was  not 
the  work  of  St,  Paul  at  all,  and  was  wrongly  attributed 
to  him  ? 

This  same  Aristides  is  related  to  Paul  in  his  Soteriology 
and  his  high  Christology  ;  but  although  he  mentions  the 
Twelve,  he  never  speaks  of  Paul  by  name,  and  therefore 
Van  Manen  maintains  that  he  knew  nothing  of  Paul  as  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  ;  he  makes  mention  of  the  Pauline 
letters  without  troubling  himself  about  their  supposed 
author  Paul  !  But  what  kind  of  argument  is  this  ?  In  an 
address  delivered  to  a  Roman  emperor,  or  in  an  address 
couched  at  least  in  this  form,  why  should  Aristides  mention 
Paul  by  name?  Justin  Martyr  in  his  Apology,  a  few  years 
later,  addressed  to  the  Emperor  Antoninus,  refers  to  our 
Gospels,  but  he  does  not  mention  the  name  of  the  author 
of  any  one  of  them,  whilst  the  way  in  which  he  speaks  of 
John  as  a  man  of  our  number,  one  of  the  Apostles  of  Christ, 
in  relation  to  the  authorship  of  the  Apocalypse,  shows  that 
he  did  not  consider  that  the  names  even  of  the  chief 
Apostles  were  likely  to  carry  weight,  as  being  widely  known. 


12      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

in  such  a  work  as  he  was  issuing.  A  reference  to  the 
Twelve  Apostles  as  a  body  was  perfectly  natural  on  the  part 
of  Aristides,  because  he  is  reciting  the  main  facts  connected 
with  Jesus  and  the  first  preaching  of  His  religion  ;  but  there 
was  no  need  to  mention  Paul  by  name,  an  obscure  Jew,  no 
doubt,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Romans. 

It  is  not  perhaps  to  be  wondered  at  that,  after  remarking 
on  the  testimony  of  St.  Clement  of  Rome  as  above,  and 
adding  that  its  colourlessness  {i.e.  of  his  Epistle)  forbids  the 
suggestion  that  circumstances  of  the  time  as  indicated  by  it 
are  fictitious,  Schmiedel  should  add  :  "  There  is,  then,  hardly 
any  necessity  for  going  into  the  evidence  of  Marcion,  who 
about  140  admitted  the  Pauline  Epistles  into  his  Church 
lectionary."  Marcion's  testimony  is,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
a  sore  stumbling-block  to  Van  Manen. 

Whether  there  was  an  authoritative  list  of  Paul's  Epistles 
before  Marcion,  as  Zahn  conjectures,  or  not,  or  whether 
we  can  prove  or  not  that  Paul's  Epistles  were  read  in  the 
worship  of  the  Christian  Church  from  the  beginning,  as 
Godet  argues,  one  thing  is  certain,  that  the  same  ten  Epistles 
which  Marcion  accepted  are  found  in  the  Muratorian  canon 
dating  some  thirty  to  forty  years  after  Marcion  wrote  ;  that 
the  canon  distinctly  implies  that  these  ten  Epistles  were 
read  in  the  public  services  of  the  Church  ;  that  they  were 
not  so  honoured  at  haphazard,  but  after  their  claims  had 
been  duly  examined  ;  that  it  makes  an  incredible  demand 
upon  us  to  suppose  that  the  whole  Church  should  have 
accepted  any  of  these  Epistles  on  the  authority  of  one 
in  whom  St.  Polycarp  had  recognised  "  the  firstborn  of 
Satan,"  whilst  it  is  equally  incredible  that  Marcion  him- 
self should  have  accepted  these  same  ten  Epistles,  many 
of  which  he  was  driven  to  mutilate  by  the  exigencies  of 
his  theory,  unless  he  knew  that  their  authorship  could  not 
be  disputed. 

That  Marcion's  text  shows  us  that  he  found  varieties  of 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

readings  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  may  be  readily  granted 
(Zahn,  Einkitung,  i.  112);  but  this  admission  is  very  far 
removed  from  the  view  that  the  text  transmitted  to  us  has 
suffered  from  any  extensive  interpolations,  as  also  from  the 
groundless  theory  that  in  the  Galatian  Epistle,  for  example, 
Marcion's  text  is  the  original,  and  that  ours  is  the  later 
version.^ 

We  have  already  remarked  on  the  manner  in  which  one 
of  the  most  acute  of  German  critics  condemns  the  attempts, 
often  ingenious  enough,  to  trace  interpolations  more  or  less 
extensive  in  the  text  of  the  Pauline  Epistles.  Another 
German  of  a  much  more  advanced  school,  C.  Clemen,  has 
borne  witness  to  the  futility  of  these  attempts  with  regard, 
at  all  events,  to  the  Galatian  Epistle,  in  which,  after  the 
keenest  examination,  he  can  only  find  two  instances  of  a 
gloss,  while  in  other  respects  he  bears  a  candid  testimony 
to   the   entire   unity   of  the   Epistle.^ 

I  propose  to  follow  up  these  remarks,  which  are  of  a 
more  or  less  general  and  introductory  character,  by  a  brief 
examination  of  the  evidence  on  which  we  accept  the  several 
Epistles  attributed  to  St.  Paul. 

One  or  two  points  may,  however,  be  emphasised  at 
once. 

If  these  Epistles,  which  are,  as  we  believe,  justly  accredited 
to  St.  Paul,  had  been  derived  from  heretical  Gnostic  sources, 
carrying  us  into  the  second  century,  and  a  considerable  way 
into  it,  how  is  it  that  their  relation  to  the  great  Gnostic 
systems  of  the  second  century  is  so  indefinitely  maintained  ? 
There  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  considerable  ground  for 
believing  that  Basilides,  Valentinus,  and  their  followers  made 
use  of  these  Epistles. 

If  so,  why  is  it  that  the  terms  contained  in  them  are 
employed    in    a    very    different    way    from    that    which    is 

^  Cf.  as  against  this  Sieffert,  Der  Brief  an  die  Galater,  p.  31  (1899). 
*  C.  Clemen,  Die  Einheitlichkeit  der  ^aulinischen  Brief e,  p.  125. 


14      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

characteristic  of  second-century  Gnosticism  ?  The  attempt 
to  find  Gnostic  terms  or  a  Gnostic  meaning  in  such  a 
passage  as  Rom.  xvi.  25,  because  we  read  of  the  re- 
velation of  the  mystery  which  hath  been  kept  in  silence 
through  times  eternal,  is  nothing  short  of  an  absurdity,  and 
the  same  judgment  may  be  passed  upon  many  similar 
attempts  with  reference  to  the  Galatian  Epistle.  It  is 
quite  beside  the  mark,  for  example,  to  take  such  words  as 
ySa^o?,  7r\7]po)jxa,  and  to  find  in  them  any  recurring 
reference  to  Gnostic  teaching  ;  the  former  word  occurs  some 
thirty  times  or  so  in  the  Septuagint,  and  the  latter  and  its 
cognates  about  twenty. 

Van  Manen  is  so  confident  of  this  direct  relationship 
between  these  Epistles  and  later  Gnosticism  that  he  finds 
fault  with  his  predecessor  Steck  for  not  sufficiently  re- 
cognising it. 

At  the  same  time,  it  may  be  noted  that  in  other  respects 
Van  Manen  is  quite  content  to  take  up  the  position  which 
Steck  had  maintained.  I  will  mention  two  :  (i)  The  use 
of  written  Gospels  by  the  writer  (or  writers)  to  whom  we 
owe  the  Pauline  Epistles.  (2)  The  high  Christology  adopted 
by  this  same  writer. 

Thus  we  are  assured  that  the  writer  of  the  original  letter 
to  the  Romans,  belonging  to  some  comparatively  late 
Gnostic  circle,  was  acquainted  with  written  Gospels  which 
certainly  resembled  our  canonical  Gospels,  although  they 
were  not,  of  course,  identical  with  them.  And  so  Van 
Manen,  like  Steck,  gives  us  instances  of  the  close  com- 
parison which  exists  between  the  language  of  each  of  our 
Synoptic  Gospels  and  each  of  the  four  chief  Pauline 
Epistles. 

But  it  is  obvious  that  this  comparison  may  be  used  in 
a  very  different  manner  from  that  which  Steck  and  Van 
Manen  designed,  and  that  it  may  help  to  show  us  the 
undeniable    similarity    which    exists    between    the    Pauline 


INTRODUCTORY  iS 

Epistles  and  our  Gospels,  and  the  frequent  references  which 
the  same  Epistles  make  to  the  Gospel  history/ 

This  high  Christology,  again,  is  found  in  all  the  four  chief 
letters.  And  it  is  evident  that  nothing  can  be  said 
exegetically,  on  Steck  and  Van  Manen's  own  showing, 
against  the  interpretation  of  the  passages  which  support 
this  high  Christology,  whether  we  assign  the  Epistles  in 
question  to  a  late  date  or  an  early  one. 

A  few  years  ago  a  distinguished  scientific  professor, 
Dr.  G.  Romanes,  who  won  his  way  back  from  Agnosticism 
to  an  acceptance  of  the  Christian  faith,  expressed  himself 
thus  with  regard  to  the  results  of  critical  inquiry  : 

"  Prior  to  the  new  (Biblical)  science  .  .  .  Gospels,  Acts, 
and  Epistles  were  all  alike  shrouded  in  uncertainty,  and 
hence  the  validity  of  the  eighteenth-century  scepticism. 

"  But  now,"  he  adds,  "  all  this  kind  of  scepticism  has 
been  rendered  obsolete,  and  for  ever  impossible  ;  while  the 
certainty  of  enough  of  St.  Paul's  writings  for  the  practical 
purpose  of  displaying  the  belief  of  the  Apostles  has  been 
established,  as  well  as  the  certainty  of  the  publication  of  the 
Synoptics  within  the  first  century."  On  the  same  page  he 
continues,  "  It  is  enough  for  us  that  the  Epistles  to  the 
Romans,  Galatians,  and  Corinthians  have  been  agreed  upon 
as  genuine,  and  that  the  same  is  true  of  the  Synoptics  so 
far  as  concerns  the  main  doctrine  of  Christ  Himself" 
{Thoughts  on  Religion,  pp.  155-6,  169). 

A  few  pages  later  he  again  takes  occasion  to  declare,  as 
if  to  emphasise  the  point,  "  The  Pauline  Epistles  of  proved 
authority  are  enough  for  all  that  is  wanted  to  show  the 
belief  of  Christ's  contemporaries"  (p.  1 69). 

That  these  Epistles  do  thus  show  the  early  rise,  the 
strength,  the  unanimity  of  that  belief,  the  following  lectures 
will  endeavour  with  some  closeness  of  detail  to  maintain  ; 

'  The  present  writer  may  refer  on  this  point  to  the  Witness  of  the 
E;pistles,  p.  189  flf. 


i6      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

and  not  only  so,  but  that  the  whole  of  the  Epistles  which 
bear  the  name  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
which  comes  to  us  from  his  intimate  comrade,  are  no  longer 
"  shrouded  in  uncertainty,"  but  that  we  have  valid  grounds 
for  attributing  these  books,  without  exception,  to  the  authors 
claimed  for  them  by  the  Catholic  Church. 


LECTURE    II 
THE   EPISTLES    TO    THE    THESSALONIANS 

IF  we  are  inquiring  for  the  earliest  testimony  of  St.  Paul 
to  Christ  in  the  Apostle's  own  written  words,  we  no 
doubt  turn  to  the  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians.  The 
testimony  contained  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  the 
earlier  part  of  the  Apostle's  career,  will  be  considered  later. 

It  must  not,  of  course,  be  forgotten  that  priority  is  claimed 
for  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  by  critics  of  eminence  and 
learning,  and  this  claim  will  also  require  consideration.  For 
the  purposes  of  the  present  inquiry  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians  will  be  ranked  with  the  two  Thessalonian  Epistles, 
as  forming  a  group  of  the  oldest  writings  of  St.  Paul  which 
have  come  down  to  us. 

Let  us  consider  the  position  which  these  Epistles  occupy 
in  the  criticism  of  to-day,  and  also  test,  so  far  as  we  can, 
the  external  and  internal  evidence  upon  which  we  receive 
them. 

It  is  noticeable  at  the  outset  that  no  suspicion  was  raised 
against  i  Thessalonians  until  well  on  in  the  second  quarter 
of  the  last  century  (1836)  when  Schrader,  the  disciple  of 
H.  Ewald,  who  was  followed  a  few  years  later  by  F.  Baur, 
attacked  it  on  purely  subjective  grounds,  a  mode  of  attack 
which  also  characterised   Baur's  own   procedure. 

In  former  days  we  could  point  to  the  names  of  De  Wette, 
Bleek,  Mangold,  Reuss,  Hausrath,  as  defenders  of  the  Epistle, 
and  at  the  present  time  this  list  is  by  no  means  failing  in 

'^  2 


i8      TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

strength  or  numbers.  Within  the  last  two  days  the  fourth 
and  concluding  volume  of  the  Encycl.  Bibl.  has  been 
published,  a  work  in  which  the  writers  are  not  likely  to  be 
biassed,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  in  favour  of  traditional  views. 
The  article  on  the  "  Thessalonian  Epistles  "  is  written  by 
Professor  McGiffert,  of  New  York,  and  he  tells  us  that  "  so 
far  as  i  Thessalonians  is  concerned,  its  authenticity,  denied 
a  couple  of  generations  ago  by  many  scholars,  is  to-day 
generally  recognised,  except  by  those  who  deny  the  genuine- 
ness of  all  the  Pauline  Epistles."  Amongst  those  who 
accept  the  Epistle  in  question,  we  may  place  Harnack, 
Holtzmann,  Jiilicher,  Weizsacker,  Pfleiderer,  Von  Soden, 
Schmiedel,  to  say  nothing  of  famous  conservative  critics. 

Against  this  array  of  names  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  not  one  first-class  critic  of  recent  years  can  be  placed, 
with  the  exception  perhaps  of  Holsten. 

The  opponents  of  the  Epistle  certainly  become  more 
and  more  provoking.  Van  Manen  tells  us,  e.g.,  that  i 
Thessalonians  was  written  about  the  same  time  as  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  i.e.,  120,  and  that  it  originated  probably 
from  the  same  circle.  It  would  also  seem  that  the  "  his- 
torical "  circumstances  are  borrowed  from  the  "  Acts  of 
Paul  "  (one  of  Van  Manen's  two  great  sources  for  the  latter 
part  of  our  Acts).  But  if  this  is  so,  it  is  strange  that  the 
writer  of  the  Epistle  should  have  left  the  difficulties  of  recon- 
ciling his  own  statements  with  those  of  our  Acts  absolutely 
untouched.^  Moreover,  this  bold  and  unknown  writer  is 
able,  some  twenty  years  later,  to  secure  a  place  for  his  work 
in  Marcion's  canon  as  an  acknowledged  Epistle  of  St.  Paul. 

Scarcely  less  arbitrary  than  the  criticism  of  Van  Manen 
is  that  of  other  critics  with  whom  he  has  chosen  to  associate 
him.self  Thus  Pierson  and  Naber  would  regard  the  latter 
part  of  I  Thess.  i.  10  as  suspicious  ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
J  Such  difficulties,  e.g.,  as  those  raised  by  McGiffert  as  to  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Church  at  Thessalonica,  and  as  to  the  length  of  St. 
Paul's  work,  in  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  5040. 


THE   EPISTLES   TO    THE   THESSALONIANS     19 

the  expressions  here,  and  some  of  the  phrases  in  the  most 
disputed  verses  (ii.  14-16),  illustrate  two  things,  viz.  that  the 
preaching  of  St.  Paul  and  that  of  the  Twelve  was  based 
upon  the  same  facts  (cf.  Acts  v.  31),  and  that  St.  Paul  had  in 
mind,  as  was  so  natural,  the  recent  murder  of  his  Lord,  with 
which,  like  St.  Peter  in  his  earliest  speeches,  he  justly- 
reproached  the  Jews.  Moreover,  the  manner  in  which  St. 
Paul  so  closely  associates  the  murder  of  Jesus  with  that  of 
the  prophets  is  precisely  similar  to  St.  Stephen's  words 
(Acts  vii.  52),  in  a  speech  which  St.  Paul  himself  may  well 
have  heard. 

In  face  of  such  considerations  it  is  surprising  that  this 
same  passage  (ii.  14-16)  should  be  still  viewed,  even  by 
critics  who  accept  the  Epistle  on  the  whole,  with  grave 
suspicion,  and  regarded  as  an  interpolation  (Schmiedel)  ^  or, 
in  part  at  least,  as  an  editorial  comment  (Moffatt,  Historical 
N.T.,  p.  626). 

The  phrase  to  which  the  chief  objection  is  still  made 
was  also  disputed  by  the  first  assailants  of  the  Epistle  ;  it 
consists  of  St.  Paul's  reference  to  his  Jewish  countrymen, 
"  the  wrath  is  come  upon  them  to  the  uttermost."  This, 
it  is  said,  could  only  have  been  written  after  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem.  But  why  so  ?  To  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that 
the  present  participles  which  occur  in  the  first  of  these 
disputed  verses  are  inconsistent  with  such  an  interpretation 
(see  Lock,  Art.  "  i  Thessalonians,"  u.s.  p.  746),  there  are 
many  passages  in  our  Lord's  last  discourses  which  would 
have  amply  justified  the  Apostle's  words.  For  example,  in 
Matt,  xxiii.  32  our  Lord  is  speaking,  like  St.  Paul,  of 
the  murderous  deeds  of  the  Jews  in  killing  the  prophets, 
and  he  adds,  "  Fill  ye  up  the  measure  of  your  fathers  "  ;  and 
so  again  in  the  parallel  passage  (Luke  xxi.  23)  we  read, 
"  For  there  shall  be  great  distress  upon  the  land   and  wrath 

'  McG\S.&Ti,  in  Encycl.  i9z'(5/.,  iv.,  Art.  "  Thessalonians,"  5041,  refuses 
to  regard  the  passage  as  not  genuine. 


20      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

unto  this  people."  And  so,  as  it  has  been  well  put,  "  The 
word  of  doom  had  already  gone  forth  against  the  apostate 
chosen  people.  Their  very  opposition  to  the  gospel  was  a 
part  of  their  punishment.  They  could  not  believe.  Their 
inability  to  believe  was  an  evidence  of  the  opyyj,  the  wrath."  ^ 
We  may  compare  St.  Paul's  words  in  Rom.  xi.  8,  "  God 
gave  them  a  spirit  of  stupor,  eyes  that  they  should  not  see, 
and  ears  that  they  should  not  hear,  unto  this  very  day."  It 
is  surely  possible,  then,  for  one  who  knew  the  words  of  doom 
uttered  by  Christ  against  the  Jewish  nation,  to  say,  "  The 
wrath  is  come  upon  them  to  the  uttermost "  (Askwith, 
Thessalonians,  p.  6i,  and  also  Haupt,  Der  Brief  an  die 
Colosser,  p.  31  [1902]). 

There  were  incidents,  moreover,  in  St.  Paul's  own  life 
which  might  have  justly  caused  him  to  express  himself  in 
such  terms.  When,  e.g.,  the  Jews  in  the  Pisidian  Antioch 
contradicted  and  blasphemed,  "  Paul  and  Barnabas  spake 
out  boldly  and  said.  It  was  necessary  that  the  word  of  God 
should  first  be  spoken  to  you.  Seeing  ye  thrust  it  from  you 
and  judge  yourselves  unworthy  of  eternal  life,  lo  !  we  turn 
to  the  Gentiles  "  (Acts  xiii.  46). 

And  in  the  very  city  (Corinth)  where  the  Apostle  was 
writing  this  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  there  came  a  time 
when  he  was  obliged  to  say  to  the  Jews,  who,  like  their 
countrymen  in  Antioch,  opposed  and  blasphemed,  "  Your 
blood  be  upon  your  own  heads  :  I  am  clean  ;  from  henceforth 
I  will  go  unto  the  Gentiles."  There  is  also  no  inconsiderable 
ground  for  supposing  that  the  words  may  have  formed 
"  a  half-stereotyped  Rabbinic  formula  for  declaring  God's 
judgment"  (Lock,  7c.s.  pp.  745-6).  At  all  events,  pre- 
cisely the  same  phraseology  is  found   in    Test.  XII.,  Pair., 

'  See  Lightfoot's  valuable  remarks,  Notes  on  the  Epistles  0/  St.  Paul, 
p.  35,  in  loco  :  "There  was  above  all  their  infatuated  opposition  to  the 
gospel,  than  which  no  more  decisive  proof  of  judicial  blindness,  or  it 
might  be  of  conscious  and  headlong  precipitation  into  ruin,  could  be 
conceived  by  the  Christian  mind." 


THE   EPISTLES   TO   THE   THESSALONIANS     21 

Levi  6,  where  Levi  is  represented  as  describing  the  evil 
deeds  of  Sichem,  and  closes  his  description  by  saying,  "  But 
the  wrath  of  the  Lord  came  upon  them  to  utter  destruction." 

Whilst,  therefore,  there  is  no  need  to  see  a  special 
reference  in  the  words  to  any  event,  such  as  the  edict  of 
Claudius  ^  commanding  the  Jews  to  depart  from  Rome,  or 
to  the  anger  of  Tiberius  and  his  spite  against  the  Jews  at 
an  earlier  date,  yet  it  is  an  historical  fact  that  Caligula's 
policy  had  stirred  the  deepest  and  most  fanatical  passions, 
and  that  since  the  death  of  Herod  Agrippa  dissension  and 
feud  had  been  rife  in  Judaea  (Moffatt,  u.s.  pp.  626,  note). 

Moreover,  after  what  has  been  said  above,  it  is  quite 
intelligible  that,  just  as  in  writing  to  the  Romans  the 
Apostle  saw  the  revelation  of  the  wrath  of  God  against 
the  heathen  in  their  abandonment  to  superstition  and  lust, 
so  here  he  sees  the  divine  wrath  poured  out  in  the  hardening 
and  unbelief  of  the  Jews. 

Even  in  a  later  chapter  of  this  same  Epistle  we  find  the 
Apostle  writing  (ch.  v.  9),  "  For  God  appointed  us  not  unto 
wrath,  but  unto  the  obtaining  of  salvation  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  The  Jews,  in  their  rejection  of  the  Messiah, 
had  cut  themselves  off  from  salvation,  and  were  appointed 
unto  wrath,  the  wrath  which  would  come  upon  them,  which 
was  coming  upon  them,  without  a  remedy. 

But  from  another  point  of  view  these  same  verses  contain 
an  indication  of  the  genuineness  of  this  Epistle.  There  is 
no  mention  in  these  Thessalonian  Epistles  of  the  controversy 
about  the  law  and  the  relation  of  justification  by  faith  to 
the  deeds  of  the  law.  The  Apostle  was  not  concerned  so 
much,  if  at  all,  with  the  intrigues  of  Judaising  false  teachers, 
as  with  the  persecuting  rage  of  fanatical  Jews.  But  it  would 
have  been  a  very  delicate — one  might  almost  say  an  im- 
possible— feat  for  one  writing  at  a  much  later  date,  and 
wishing  to  foist  this  Epistle  upon  the  Church  as  the  work 

'  This  is  a  view  since  advocated  by  Clemen  {Paulus,  i.  pp.  113-4). 


22       TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

of  St.  Paul,  to  have  seized  the  situation  so  exactly,  and  to 
have  avoided  any  references  to  the  teaching  which  occupied 
such  a  prominent  place  in  the  succeeding  group  of  the 
Apostle's  writings. 

And  if  such  a  writer  had  been  acquainted  with  the  Acts,  the 
temptation  would  have  been  great  to  have  introduced  some 
reference  to  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  since  St. 
Paul's  earliest  and  only  missionary  address  to  an  assembly 
of  his  fellow  countrymen  which  we  have  received  spoke  of 
it  so  emphatically  (Acts  xiii.  39),  and  the  question  was,  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe,  a  customary  topic  for  discussion 
in  Jewish  schools. 

But  the  simpler  and  more  practical  the  letter,  the  greater 
becomes  the  difficulty  of  discovering  any  adequate  motive 
for  its  composition  at  a  late  date,  and  in  the  name  of  Paul.^ 
If,  e.g.,  it  is  alleged  that  the  motive  is  to  be  found  in  its 
eschatological  teaching,  as  in  i  Thess.  iv.  15,  not  only 
does  the  distinctive  teaching  occupy  a  very  small  space, 
but  even  this  section  of  teaching  was  concerned  with  a  very 
practical  question,  and  one  which  might  easily  arise  at  an 
early  period  in  the  life  of  the  Church. 

Moreover,  as  it  stands,  this  verse  (i  Thess.  iv.  15) 
might  easily  be  taken  to  mean  that  St.  Paul  believed  that 
he  would  be  alive  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  any- 
one writing  after  the  Apostle's  death  would  not  be  likely 
to  have  put  into  his  mouth  expressions  so  liable  to  be 
misunderstood.' 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  verse  need  not  imply  St.  Paul's 
belief  in  his  own  survival  until  the  Parousia,  for  the  pronoun 

'  The  theory  advocated  by  Spitta  that  Timothy  was  the  author  of 
2  Thessalonians  has  been  already  referred  to,  but  it  has  been  fairly 
urged  that  this  supposition  creates  more  difficulties  than  it  solves, 
and  that  Silvanus,  as  the  prophet,  might  more  naturally  have  been 
regarded  as  the  author  of  the  prophetic  message. 

^  This  view  is  recently  supported  by  Clemen,  who  accepts  both  i  and 
2  Thessalonians. 


THE   EPISTLES   TO   THE   THESSALONIANS     23 

"  we  "  may  fairly  be  interpreted  in  a  general  sense,  just  as 
the  same  Apostle  says  to  the  Corinthians,  "  We  shall  not  all 
sleep,  we  shall  all  be  changed."  But  the  point  is  that  a 
writer,  wishing  to  put  himself  in  the  place  of  Paul,  would 
have  avoided  an  ambiguity,  or  an  apparent  statement  which 
subsequent  events  had  totally  falsified. 

If  we  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  external  evidence,  we 
shall  find  that  it  well  sustains  the  belief  in  the  early  existence 
and  Pauline  authorship  of  the  Epistle.  How  far  we  are 
justified  in  finding  a  use  of  i  Thessalonians  in  the  Didache 
is  very  doubtful  ;  but  it  is  worth  noticing  that  even  Holtz- 
mann  {Einleitungf  p.  94)  is  inclined  to  attribute  some 
weight  to  the  possible  points  of  contact  between  the  two 
writings,  and  to  the  probable  use  of  the  Epistle  by  the  writer 
of  the  Didache. 

Without  pressing  the  several  passages  in  early  Church 
writers  in  which  the  ideas  may  have  been  at  least  suggested 
by  this  Epistle  (Jacquier,  Histoire  dcs  Livres  du  N.T.,  p.  84 
[1903]),  and  without  referring  to  the  passages  in  the  apocryphal 
Testament  of  Hezekiah  dating  probably  88-100  A.D.,  wherein 
the  language  frequently  resembles  that  of  i  Thessalonians 
and  also  that  of  2  Thessalonians,  a  point  to  which  we  shall 
return,  there  is  considerable  reason  for  believing  that  St. 
Ignatius  had  in  mind  on  one  occasion,  if  not  on  two,  the 
words  of  this  First  Epistle  (Askwith,  it.s.  p.  51)  ;  there  is 
the  mention  of  both  Epistles  in  the  Muratorian  fragment, 
where  we  read  that  Paul  wrote  two  Epistles  to  the 
Thessalonians  for  their  correction,  and,  in  addition  to  this 
recognition  by  the  Church,  there  is  the  earlier  and  un- 
doubted recognition  of  both  Epistles  in  the  canon  of  the 
heretic  Marcion  ;  there  are  undoubted  quotations  not  only 
from  one,  but  from  both  Thessalonian  Epistles  in  St. 
Irenaeus,  Tertullian,  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  there 
is  the  presence  of  both  Epistles  in  the  Peshitto  Syriac,  and 
Old  Latin  versions, 


24      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

If  we  turn  to  2  Thessalonians,  an  Epistle  against  which 
so  many  attacks  are  still  directed,  and  the  genuineness  of 
which  is  still  so  severely  tested,  as  we  pointed  out  in  the 
first  lecture,  we  meet  with,  in  some  respects,  an  even  stronger 
external  attestation  than  in  the  case  of  the  first  Epistle.^ 
There  are  the  same  possible  reminiscences  of  the  Didache 
(Holtzmann,  p.  94)  ;  in  the  Testament  of  Hezekiah  the  re- 
semblances are  still  more  remarkable  than  in  the  case  of 
the  First  Epistle,  and  there  is  certainly  stronger  ground  for 
believing  that  2  Thessalonians  was  known  to  St.  Polycarp  ^ 
than  for  believing  that  i  Thessalonians  was  known  to 
St.  Ignatius,  probable  as  that  knowledge  may  be.  There 
are  also  the  undoubted  references  of  the  great  Fathers  of 
the  Church — Ireneeus,  Tertullian,  Origen — to  the  famous 
passage  concerning  the  Man  of  Sin,^  and  to  these  may  be 
added  the  language  which  seems  very  much  like  a  reminis- 
,cence  of  the  same  passage  in  Justin  Martyr,  and  in  the 
famous  letter,  to  which  we  shall  again  recur,  of  the  Christians 
of  Vienne  and  Lyons,  about  B.C.  177. 

Wrede,  indeed,  the  latest  opponent  of  the  Epistle,  writing 
in  this  present  year  (1903),  seems  rather  puzzled  by  the  fact 
that  2  Thessalonians  undoubtedly  found  a  place  amongst 
the  ten  Epistles  admitted  by  the  heretic  Marcion  about  140. 
But  he  is  bold  enough  to  maintain  that  the  Epistle  may  have 
been  composed  as  late  even  as  130  in  Phrygia,  that  from 
thence  it  may  have  found  its  way  to  Rome,  and  that  in  the 
incredibly  short  space  of  time  which  his  theory  seems  to  us 
to  demand  the  letter  was  accepted  as  the  work  of  St.  Paul 
both  by  the  Church  and  by  those  who  opposed  his  teaching. 

'  In  answer  to  the  recent  attacks  of  Wrede  and  of  H.  Holtzmann 
{^Zeitschrift  fur  die  neutest.  Wissenschaft,  p.  97  [1901]),  Dr.  G. 
Milligan's  article,  Ex;positor,  June,  1904,  should  be  consulted.  See 
also  Lecture  XXIV.  and  Milligan,  Expositor,  August  1905. 

*  "His  use  of  2  Thessalonians  appears  to  be  very  probable  "  {The 
New  Testa7ne?ii  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  p.  95  [1905]). 

^  A  point  recently  emphasised  in  defence  by  Clemen  [Paulus,  i. 
p.  121), 


THE   EPISTLES   TO   THE   THESSALONIANS     25 

But  it  is  also  sometimes  strongly  asserted  that  this  second 
Epistle  is  only  an  imitation  of  i  Thessalonians.  That  there 
are  resemblances  between  two  writings  directed  to  the  same 
Church,  with  no  long  interval  of  time  intervening,  and  dealing 
to  the  same  extent  with  the  same  subject,  is  not,  surely,  to  be 
wondered  at,  and  one  is  rather  surprised  that  the  same 
objections  on  this  score,  some  of  which  seem  little  less  than 
quibbling,  should  be  still  seriously  repeated.  Thus,  instead 
of  "We  give  thanks"  (i  Thess.  i.  2),  it  is  objected  that  in 
2  Thess.  i.  3,  ii.  13,  we  have,  "  We  ought  to  give  thanks." 
But  such  a  slight  change  in  the  mode  of  expression  might 
be  due  to  a  different  amanuensis,  or  to  the  sharper  tone  of 
authority  which  distinctly  characterises  the  second  Epistle, 
in  contrast  to  the  first. 

It  is  this  close  similarity  of  language  which  evidently 
induces  Dr.  McGiffert  to  regard  the  second  Epistle  as 
doubtful,  although  he  thinks  that  even  this  difficulty  may 
be  met  by  the  consideration  that  St.  Paul  would  have  heard 
that  some  of  the  Thessalonians  were  appealing  to  some  views 
of  his  as  to  the  Parousia  in  his  first  letter,  and  that  to  see 
how  far  this  appeal  was  justified  he  would  read  over  his 
first  letter  before  writing  a  second. 

But  the  more  we  emphasise  the  resemblances  of  this 
second  Epistle  to  the  first,  the  more  it  becomes  necessary 
to  discover  some  adequate  motive  for  its  composition.  And 
this  can  only  be  found  with  any  show  of  probability  in  the 
introduction  of  the  famous  eschatological  section  ii.  1-12. 

But  if  this  is  so,  then  we  have  to  suppose  that  a  later  and 
unknown  writer  not  only  introduces  a  passage  totally  unlike 
any  other  passage  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  but  a  passage  the 
meaning  of  which  is  still  a  subject  for  endless  interpretations, 
and  which  in  its  enigmatical  structure  must  have  sorely 
puzzled  the  readers  to  whom  the  writer  presumably  meant 
to  commend  his  teaching.  Why,  then,  did  he  introduce  it 
in  such  a  strange  form  ?      If,  on  the  other  hand,  St.   Paul 


26      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

was  himself  the  author  of  this  eschatological  passage,  then 
we  can  see  at  once  why  some  of  its  phrases,  which  appear  so 
enigmatical,  e.g.  "  the  man  of  sin,"  "  the  lawless  one,"  are 
referred  to  in  a  manner  which  presupposes  some  previous 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  readers,  "  Remember  you  not 
when  I  was  yet  with  you,  I  told  you  these  things  ?  "  (ii.  5), 
and  why,  in  view  of  the  political  charges  which  had  been 
made  against  him  in  Thessalonica,  the  Apostle  would  seek 
to  avoid  any  expressions  which  might,  if  by  any  means 
they  became  known,  excite  against  him  the  disapproval  of 
the  Roman  power. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  enter  into  a  detailed  ex- 
amination of  this  celebrated  passage  ;  but  this  may  certainly 
be  said,  that  there  is  nothing  either  in  its  language  or  its 
probable  interpretation  which  militates  against  the  author- 
ship of  the  Epistle  by  St.  Paul. 

The  language  and  its  interpretation  may  both  perhaps  be 
best  understood  by  referring  them,  primarily  at  all  events,  to 
the  fanatical  and  relentless  unbelieving  Judaism  which  the 
Apostle  had  already  so  strongly  condemned,  and  in  which 
he  saw,  as  it  were,  the  incarnation  of  all  hostility  to  God  and 
Christ,  an  apostasy  embodied  not  only  in  false  teachers  and 
false  prophets,  of  whom  the  Lord  had  given  warning,  but 
culminating  in  a  false  Messiah,  the  Antichrist,  who  claimed 
to  be  the  representative  of  God  appearing  in  the  temple  of 
God  (cf  Mai.  iii.  i). 

It  was  against  this  final  outburst  of  lawlessness,  cloking 
itself  under  a  zeal  for  the  law  of  God,  that  the  Roman 
power  had  been  the  constant  restraining  protecting  agency  ^  ; 
it  had  proved  itself  to  be  so  in  the  very  same  city  from 
which  St.  Paul  was  addressing  his  Thessalonian  converts. 

Again,  we  find  undoubted  points  of  contact  of  a  very  re- 
markable kind  in  the  picture  of  the   Antichrist  described   in 

'  See  further,  amongst  recent  writers,  Dr.  H.  A.  Kennedy,  S^,  PauVs 
Conceptio7is  of  the  Last  Things,  p.  219. 


THE   EPISTLES    TO   THE   THESSALONIANS     27 

the  Testament  of  Hezekiah  ;  and  although  this  language  has 
reference  to  Nero  as  the  Antichrist,  it  shows  us  either  that 
it  was  borrowed  to  some  extent  from  our  Epistle,  or  that 
St.  Paul's  language  of  a  similar  kind  need  not  be  excluded, 
but  rather  admitted  as  evidently  likely  to  rise  to  Jewish  lips. 

The  Antichrist  is  the  caricature  of  the  Christ.  Like  Him, 
he  is  to  have  his  advent  and  his  manifestation,  and  to  be  a 
worker  of  miracles  ;  and  as  the  Christ  is  at  the  head  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  so  he  is  supreme  over  the  kingdom  of  evil 
(Charles,  Ascension  of  Isaiah^  p.  27). 

In  this  connection  it  may  also  be  noted  that  there  is 
nothing  inconsistent  in  the  language  which  describes  the 
day  of  the  Lord  coming  as  a  thief  in  the  night,  and  which 
takes  account  also  of  the  events  which  would  lead  up  to, 
and  prepare  for,  that  sudden  advent.  In  the  first  Epistle 
the  warning  is  to  watch,  lest  they  are  taken  unprepared  ;  in 
the  second  they  are  bidden  to  note  the  premonitory  signs 
already  appearing  (cf.  Askwith's  Thessalonians,  p.  84).  This 
same  inconsistency,  if  it  is  one,  had  at  all  events  found  a 
place  in  our  Lord's  own  final  discourses,  and  we  can  scarcely 
doubt  that  St.  Paul  was  acquainted  with  these  divine 
utterances.^ 

There  was  a  time  not  long  ago  when  it  might  be  said 
that  it  was  almost  an  axiom  of  representatives  of  the  extreme 
critical  school  to  accept  i  Thessalonians  and  to  reject 
2  Thessalonians.  But  there  are  signs  that  this  is  no  longer 
quite  the  position  of  affairs.  And  not  only  so,  but  it  would 
be  easy  to  quote  famous  names  both  in  the  past  and  in  the 
present  in  support  of  the  Pauline  authorship,  such  names, 
e.g.^  as  those  of  Reuss,  Schenkel,  Grimm,  Mangold  ;  and 
whilst  to-day  the  Epistle  is  of  course  accepted  by  all  con- 
servative critics,  it  is  also  treated  as  genuine  by  Harnack, 
Jiilicher,  Clemen,  Wendt ;  in  America  by  McGiffert  and 
Bacon  ;   in    England    by  Moffatt,   Drummond,    Charles  ;   in 

'  See  also  McGiffert,  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  5042. 


28       TESTIMONY    OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

France  by  Sabatier  (in  earlier  days  Renan  too  had  regarded 
it  as  authentic).  Even  amongst  the  Dutch  critics,  who  are 
most  radical  in  their  opposition,  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
supporters  of  the  Epistle  may  be  found  {e.g.  Westrik,  see 
Holtzmann,  Einleitungf  p.  213),  whilst  in  Germany  what 
can  be  more  significant  than  Holtzmann's  remark,  that  the 
question  to-day  is  no  longer  as  to  whether  the  Epistle  can 
be  thrust  down  into  the  post-Apostolic  age,  but  whether,  on 
the  contrary,  it  does  not  reach  back  into  the  life-time  of  the 
Apostle,  and  is  consequently  genuine,  and  written  soon  after 
I  Thessalonians,  about  54  A.D.  (see  Moffatt,  u.s.  p.  145,  and 
Holtzmann  Einleittingf  p.  216).  In  the  Encycl.  Bibl.  Dr. 
McGiffert,  in  quoting  this  same  remark,  allows  that  the 
tendency  to  regard  the  Epistle  as  genuine  has  apparently 
grown  somewhat  in  recent  years  amongst  scholars  of  the 
critical  school  ;  and  whilst  for  his  own  part  he  still  classes  it 
as  doubtful,  he  admits  that  the  evidence  points  rather  in  the 
direction  of  the  Pauline  authorship. 

We  turn  to  another  Epistle  (Galatians),  which,  if  it  does 
not  belong  to  the  first  group  of  the  Apostle's  letters,  in 
which  it  is  now  sometimes  classed,  as  by  Dr.  Zahn,  finds 
the  earliest  place  in  the  second  group,  according  to  a  large 
majority  of  scholars,  although  Bishop  Lightfoot's  view,  which 
places  Galatians  after  i  and  2  Corinthians,  still  commands 
strong  supporters  (Askwith,  Galatians,  p.  126). 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  Epistle  to  which  it  is 
more  difficult  to  assign  a  definite  date  or  place  of  writing, 
and  it  is  no  wonder  that  Harnack  gives  up  the  attempt, 
although,  of  course,  he  admits  the  Pauline  authorship 
without  any  hesitation. 

But  we  have  the  great  authority  of  Zahn  for  placing  it  in 
the  early  part  of  the  Apostle's  visit  to  Corinth  in  the 
beginning  of  53,  and  before  i  and  2  Thessalonians,  while 
Bacon  regards  it  as  the  earliest  of  all  the  New  Testament 
writings,  and  places  it  also  at  Corinth  and  as  early  as  the 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         29 

spring  of  50  {Introduction,  p.  57).^  In  our  own  country- 
Mr.  Rendall  and  Professor  V.  Bartlet,  following  the  American 
Professors  McGiffert  and  Bacon,  and  with  the  German 
Clemen  on  his  change  of  view,  regard  this  Epistle  as  the 
first  and   earliest  which  we  owe  to  St.   Paul. 

On  the  S.  Galatian  theory,  according  to  which  St.  Paul, 
in  using  the  term  "  Galatia,"  means  the  Roman  province  of 
that  name,  including  under  it  the  places  visited  and  the 
churches  founded  on  his  first  missionary  journey,  we 
certainly  have  some  striking  coincidences  between  the 
Galatian  Epistle  and  the  incidents  of  the  Apostle's  first 
missionary  journey  in  Acts,  and  these  coincidences  point  to 
a  comparatively  early  date  for  the  Epistle.  In  the  Acts  we 
read  how  the  impetuous  inhabitants  of  Lystra  (xiv.  11,  13) 
believed  that  the  gods  had  come  down  to  them  in  the 
likeness  of  men,  and  Paul  is  called  by  them  Hermes,  the 
messenger  of  the  gods.  In  the  Epistle  (iv.  14)  Paul  himself 
tells  us  how  he  had  been  received  as  an  angel,  i.e.  a 
messenger  of  God,  yea,  even  as  Christ  Jesus.  In  the  Acts 
we  read  of  the  sufferings  and  privations  which  came  upon 
him  during  this  same  first  missionary  journey  at  Antioch, 
Iconium,  Lystra,  especially  the  latter,  where  he  was  well-nigh 
stoned  to  death.  In  the  Epistle  (Gal.  vi.  17)  St.  Paul  tells  us 
how  he  bears  branded  on  his  body  the  marks  of  Jesus, 
although  it  is  true  that  the  latter  words  receive  even  a  more 
vivid  illustration,  if  we  regard  the  Apostle  as  having  just 
come  to  Corinth  from  Philippi  with  the  marks  of  the  lictor's 
rods  fresh  upon  his  body.^  At  the  same  time,  it  cannot  be 
said  that  Dr.  Zahn  has  made  the  historical  circumstances 
quite  clear. 

But   whilst   Zahn,   Rendall,   and    Bacon    place    Galatians 
after  the  Apostolic  Council,  the  Romanist  writer,  Dr.  Weber, 

^  See,  further,  Moffatt,  u.s.  pp.  126,  708,  2nd  edit. 
*  See  Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  139,  and  also  Rendall,  Expositor,  April, 
1894,  and  more  recently  Clemen. 


30      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

who  has  dealt  most  exhaustively  with  the  whole  subject, 
and  whose  views  are  treated  with  growing  and  deserved 
respect,  places  it  with  another  distinguished  Romanist 
writer.  Dr.  Belser,  before  the  Apostolic  Council.  Weber  is, 
of  course,  a  strong  supporter  of  the  S.  Galatian  theory, 
and  he  argues  that  if  Galatians  is  to  be  placed  after  the 
Council,  we  cannot  account  for  the  fact  that  it  makes  no 
reference  to  the  decrees  of  the  Council.  He  would 
therefore  place  the  composition  of  Galatians,  in  the  interval 
referred  to  in  Acts  xiv.  28,  between  the  return  of  St.  Paul 
from  his  first  missionary  journey  and  the  meeting  of  the 
Apostolic  Council  described  in  ch.  xv. 

Professor  Weber  also  contends  that  the  personal  element 
is  not  so  pronounced  as  in  the  Corinthian  Epistles,  although 
here  it  may  be  fairly  thought  that  he  is  somewhat  inclined 
to  force  his  proof.  On  this  same  ground  he  also  maintains 
that  Galatians  precedes  i  and  2  Thessalonians.  In  these 
two  Epistles,  the  Apostle  had  no  need  to  defend  his  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  or  attacks  against  his  person  ; 
indeed,  he  had  no  reason  to  suspect  a  further  Jewish 
agitation,  since  at  the  Council  he  had  gained  a  victory  over  the 
open  hostility  of  the  false  brethren,  and  the  personal  attacks 
of  the  Corinthian  and  Roman  Epistles  had  not  yet  begun. 

But  however  this  may  be,  it  is  very  important  to  note 
that  on  the  S.  Galatian  theory  there  are  very  noteworthy 
points  of  contact,  not  only  between  the  incidents  of  the  first 
missionary  journey  and  the  language  of  the  Galatian 
Epistle,  but  also  between  the  Epistle  and  the  speech  of 
St.  Paul  at  Pisidian  Antioch  in  the  same  first  missionary 
journey  ;  and  if  the  members  of  the  Church  in  the  latter  were 
included  under  the  term  "  Galatians,"  this  is  just  what  we 
might  expect  (Ramsay,  Galatians,  p.  401). 

^  Weber,  Die  Abfassung  des  Galaterbrte/s  vordcm  Apostelkonzil, 
p.  15.  But  see  on  this  position  of  Weber  a  very  acute  criticism  in  the 
Journal  of  Theological  Studies,  p.  632,  July,  1902. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE    GALATIANS         31 

U,  £".£:,  as  is  apparent  from  the  narrative  in  Acts  xiii.  38-9, 
the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  was  advocated  by 
St.  Paul  in  his  first  recorded  sermon,  it  might  well  find  a 
prominent  place  in  the  Epistle  addressed  to  the  Churches 
of  S.  Galatia,  which  included,  of  course,  that  of  the  Pisidian 
Antioch. 

At  all  events  the  coincidences  between  the  sermon  and 
the  Epistle  might  reasonably  and  perhaps  be  best  accounted 
for  by  supposing  that  no  very  long  space  of  time  had  elapsed 
between  the  Apostle's  writing  and  the  Apostle's  preaching 
(^Apostolic  Age,  McGiffert,  pp.  157,  228  ;  cf.  Gal.  i.  6). 

In  England,  as  we  have  said,  the  great  authority  of 
Lightfoot  has  made  us  familiar  with  the  order  i  and  2 
Corinthians,  Galatians,  Romans  ;  but  so  far  as  Romans  is 
concerned,  it  might  be  argued  that  the  sharp  opposition 
against  the  law  and  Judaism  appears  in  that  Epistle  in  a 
much  milder  form  than  in  the  Galatian  Epistle  (cf.  Sieffert, 
Galaterbrief,  p.  21),  while  with  regard  to  2  Corinthians  the 
fact  that  it  contains  no  doctrinal  attacks  upon  the  Judaisers 
may  simply  show  that  personal  elements  were  specially  at 
work,  and  called  for  special  treatment,  not  that  Galatians 
makes  an  advance  upon  an  earlier  stage  of  progress  in  the 
conflict  between  Paul  and  the  Judaisers  (Moffatt,  Historical 
N.T.,  p.  128). 

But  whether  we  follow  Weber  in  placing  the  Galatian 
Epistle  earliest  of  all  and  before  the  Apostolic  Council  in 
49,  or  possibly  at  the  close  of  48  (u.s.  p.  394),  or  whether 
we  place  it,  with  Lightfoot,  possibly  nearly  ten  years  later 
(57-8),  or  whether  we  adopt  an  intermediate  date  (say  50- 
3),  with  other  critics,  without  deciding  definitely  about  the 
occasion  or  place  of  writing,  it  is  most  important  to  note 
that  none  of  these  dates  is  in  the  least  irreconcilable  with 
the  narrative  in  the  Acts  (see  Moffatt,  N.7\,  p.  137). 

It  has  been  left  indeed  for  some  at  least  of  the  recent 
opponents  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Epistle  to  reject  it  on 


32      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  ground  that  it  is  less  trustworthy  than  parts,  at  all 
events,  of  the  Acts,  and  to  maintain  that  it  shows  acquaintance 
not  only  with  portions  of  that  book,  but  also  with  the 
Roman  and  Corinthian  Epistles. 

Those  who  hold  these  views,  which  we  may  remark  in 
passing  are  strangely  unlike  those  maintained  in  earlier 
days  by  the  founder  of  the  Tubingen  School,  calmly  place 
Galatians  at  120-40,  or  even  later  (150). 

In  accomplishing  this  feat  they  are  obliged  at  the  outset 
to  maintain  that  the  writer,  or  rather  writers,  of  Galatians 
represent  a  culminating  point  in  the  attack  upon  the 
Judaising  party  ;  in  other  words,  that  the  finished  statue, 
i.e.  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  precedes  the  rough  model,  i.e. 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  (Lightfoot,  Galatians,  p.  49). 

But,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  this  psychological  difficulty 
is,  comparatively  speaking,  a  slight  one  in  the  face  of  others 
which  have  to  be  met  by  the  bold  upholders  of  this  im- 
possible date,  and  of  the  authorship  by  unknown  and  various 
writers. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  remark  that  no  one  has  studied 
this  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  more  carefully  than  Professor 
Ramsay ;  no  one  has  shed  a  clearer  light  upon  many  of 
its  difficult  problems,  and  no  one  is  more  thoroughly 
convinced  that  St.  Paul  is  its  author  and  its  sole  author. 
And  this  testimony  on  the  part  of  Professor  Ramsay  is 
all  the  more  significant  because,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  there 
was  a  period  in  his  life  when  he  followed  the  German  critics 
and  unhesitatingly  accepted  their  results.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  the  occasion  on  which  Dr.  Ramsay  was  first  led  to 
study  this  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  He  tells  us  {C.R.E.,  p.  6) 
that  it  formed  part  of  a  divinity  examination  at  Oxford, 
"  and  it  is  only  fair  to  acknowledge,"  he  adds,  "  how  much 
I  gained  from  an  examination  which  I  submitted  to  with 
great  reluctance.  Immersed  as  I  was  at  the  time  in  Greek 
philosophy,  it  appeared   to  me  that  Paul  was  the  first  true 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS        33 

successor  of  Aristotle,  and  his  work  a  great  relief  after  the 
unendurable  dreariness  of  the  Greek  Stoics  and  the  dulness 
of  the  Epicureans." 

Many  years  have  passed  by  since  then,  and  we  know  how 
much  we  owe  as  New  Testament  students  to  the  continuous 
labours  of  Professor  Ramsay.  These  are  the  words  with 
which  he  concludes  one  of  his  most  recent  works,  his 
Historical  Commentary  oii  the  Galatians  :  "  So  ends  this 
unique  and  marvellous  letter,  which  embraces  in  its  six 
short  chapters  such  a  variety  of  vehement  and  intense 
emotions  as  could  probably  not  be  paralleled  in  any  other 
work.  It  lays  bare  and  open  in  the  most  extraordinary 
degree  the  nature  both  of  the  writer  and  of  the  reader." 
"  And  this  letter,"  he  proceeds,  "  is  pronounced  by  some 
of  our  friends  in  Europe  to  be  an  accretion  of  scraps 
round  and  between  bits  of  genuine  original  Pauline  writing. 
How  blind  and  dead  to  all  sense  of  literature  and  to 
all  knowledge  of  life  and  human  nature  must  the  man  be 
who  so  judges  !  .  .  .  To  argue  with  such  critics  would  be  as 
absurd  as  it  would  have  been  for  Paul  to  employ  to  the 
Galatians  a  series  of  arguments  addressed  to  the  intellect. 
In  such  cases  one  must  see  and  feel.  Those  who  cannot 
see  and  feel  for  themselves  cannot  be  reached  by  argument. 
You  must  kindle  in  them  life  and  power"  (pp.  474-5). 
"  Paul,"  he  adds,  "  could  do  that  for  the  Galatians.  Who 
will  do  it  in  the  present  day  ?  "  The  best  answer  we  can 
make,  is  it  not  this — "  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
Lord  and  Giver  of  life  "  ? 


LECTURE    III 
THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  G  AL  ATI  A  NS— {continued) 

IN  alluding  once  more  to  recent  attacks  upon  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
whole  historical  situation  which  that  Epistle  pictures  to  us 
was  impossible  at  the  date  120-40,  to  which  its  assailants 
would  assign  it.  Sieffert  {Galater brief,  p.  32)  rightly  em- 
phasises this,  and  it  is  Schmiedel  who  reminds  us  {Encycl. 
Bibl.,  ii.  1622)  that  the  close  adhesion  to  the  Mosaic  law 
which  gives  the  chief  occasion  for  Galatians  and  Romans 
was  at  that  late  date  only  feebly  represented.  There  is 
certainly  nothing  to  lead  us  to  suppose  that  circumcision 
was  a  burning  and  vital  question  in  the  first  half  of  the 
second  century,  or  that  its  reception  was  bound  up  with  the 
reception  and  the  freedom  of  the  Gospel. 

It  may,  of  course,  be  replied  that  the  writer  of  Galatians 
wishes  his  readers  to  assume  that  he  is  Paul  the  Apostle, 
and  that  he  is  representing  a  struggle  which  took  place 
during  the  Apostle's  lifetime.  But  to  say  nothing  of  the 
literary  feat  which  would  be  involved  in  thus  producing  at 
such  a  late  date  a  writing  so  marked  by  personal  colouring 
and  freshness,  how  possibly  could  this  unknown  writer  have 
been  sure  of  his  ground  ?  Nay,  had  he  any  ground  what- 
ever to  stand  upon  in  making  his  attempt  ?  For  if  we 
have  no  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  left  to  us  for  guidance,  if  the 
picture  of  the  life  of  the  early  Church  is  so  dimmed  and 
obscured   that  we    cannot   depend    upon    it    for   light    and 

34 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         35 

leading,  upon  what  would  this  writer  have  based  his  con- 
struction of  the  struggle  depicted  in  the  Galatian  Epistle  ? 

If  it  is  said  that  he  might  have  known  that  some  such 
struggle  must  at  some  period  have  found  a  place  in  the 
development  of  the  Church,  then  in  that  case'  it  is  difficult 
to  see  why  St.  Paul  himself  might  not  have  written  the 
letter,  and  its  contents  might  fairly  represent  a  far  earlier  state 
of  things  than  that  which  existed  according  to  St.  Ignatius 
and  Justin  Martyr  in  the  first  half  of  the  second  century. 

How  purely  arbitrary  all  these  attempts  are  to  break  up 
the  contents  of  this  brief  Epistle  between  various  writers  in 
the  judgment  not  only  of  Professor  Ramsay,  but  of  German 
critics  like  C.  Clemen,  we  have  already  seen.^ 

With  regard  to  the  alleged  difficulties  connected  with 
the  Acts  and  Galatians,  only  a  brief  mention  of  one  or  two 
of  them  can  be  made. 

The  most  commonly  acknowledged  difficulty  is  one  con- 
nected with  the  identification  of  the  visit  of  St.  Paul  to 
Jerusalem,  Gal.  ii.  i-io,  with  what  we  gather  of  his  visits 
to  the  Holy  City  in  the  Acts.  But  whether  we  identify 
Gal.  ii.  with  Acts  xv.,  as  was  done  by  Lightfoot,  a  view 
still  supported  by  Chase  and  by  a  large  and  influential 
number  of  English  and  Continental  writers,  or  whether  with 
Ramsay,  and  with  Weber  and  Belser  in  Germany,  we 
identify  Gal.  ii.  with  Acts  xi.  29,  xii.  25,  there  is  nothing 
at  all  events  which  conflicts  in  any  degree  with  the 
attribution  of  the  Galatian  letter  to  St.  Paul.  But  it  may 
be  well  to  add  that  another  difficulty  which  presented  itself 
to  Loman  is  quite  removed  by  the  admission  of  the  S. 
Galatian  theory.  "  How  many  years,"  he  asks  {Nalatenschapy 
p.  T^,  "  must  Paul  have  found  necessary  in  order  to  bring 
these  people — i.e.  the  Galatians — to  the  height  of  development 

^  Van  Manen  now  apparently  leaves  the  question  open  as  to  the 
originality  of  Marcion's  Galatians  in  preference  to  our  canonical 
Galatians. 


S6      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

which  was  needful  before  they  could  understand  anything 
of  the  theological  subtleties  of  the  Galatian  Epistle  ?  "  All 
this  entirely  ignores  the  kind  of  people  with  whom  St.  Paul 
on  the  South  Galatian  theory  would  have  to  deal,  not,  i.e., 
with  scattered  agricultural  populations,  but  rather  with  the 
comparatively  educated  congregations  of  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
Iconium,  Lystra,  Derbe.^ 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  to  a  brief  examination  of  the 
external  evidence  for  this  Galatian  Epistle.  This  was 
marshalled  clearly  and  in  detail  by  Bishop  Lightfoot  in  his 
Commentary  on  the  Epistle.  In  the  earlier  editions  of 
Meyer's  Commentary  there  was  perhaps  a  tendency  to 
undervalue  the  points  of  contact  with  the  early  Sub-Apostolic 
Fathers ;  but  writers  like  the  Frenchman  Jacquier  are 
evidently  careful  not  to  lay  too  much  stress  upon  them, 
and  it  is  surprising  to  find  that  B.  Weiss  {Einleitung  in 
das  N.T.,  p.  37)  refers  to  Ignatius  {Siiiyr.,  ix.  i)  as  con- 
taining a  reminiscence  of  Gal.  vi.  10.  In  both  cases,  it  is  true, 
we  have  the  words  "  as  we  still  have  time  "  or  "  opportunity." 
But  the  words  are  too  general  to  necessitate  any  definite 
borrowing  or  reminiscence,  and  the  context  in  which  they 
are  placed  by  St.  Ignatius  differs  considerably  from  that  in 
which  the  words  are  found  in  Galatians. 

Professor  Sieffert,  however,  rightly  holds  {Galaterbrief, 
p.  26)  that  in  Polycarp  {Phil.,  v.  i)  we  have  something  more 
than  a  chance  coincidence  of  expression  with  Gal.  vi.  7, 
"  God  is  not  mocked,"  the  same  verb  being  used  in  each 
case,  and  in  Galatians  alone  in  the  New  Testament.  And 
in  an  Epistle  like  that  of  St.  Polycarp,  which,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  contains  many  likenessess  of  expression  to  other 
phrases  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  it  is  certainly  noticeable  that 
the  words  occur  "  which  is  the  mother  of  us  all,"  words 
found  in  Gal.  iv.  26  (Polycarp,  Phil.,  iii.  2). 

'  Lock,  The  Master  Builder,  p.  17  ;  and  Ramsay,  Galatians, 
pp.  3  ff  and  33. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         37 

But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Galatians  was  known  to 
Justin  Martyr  and  other  Apologists,  Athenagoras  and 
MeHto,  while  the  testimony  to  it  is  quite  distinct  in  Irenaeus, 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  Tertullian,  and  it  finds  a  place  in 
the  Syriac  and  Old  Latin  versions,  as  also  in  the  Muratorian 
Fragment. 

Moreover,  its  undoubted  use  by  early  heretics  is  most 
significant,  as,  e.g.,  by  Valentinus,  and  by  the  sect  of  the 
Ophites,  and  also  by  Marcion,  in  whose  canon  it  occupies 
the  place  of  honour,  as  his  chief  weapon  against  Judaism. 

This  testimony  of  Marcion  is,  as  we  have  said,  a  sore 
stumbling-block  to  the  assailants  of  the  Epistle.  It  certainly 
seems  incredible  that  if  it  was  Marcion's  purpose  to  purify 
the  Pauline  Epistles  from  the  interpolations  which  had  found 
their  way  into  them,  he  should  have  received  into  his  canon 
an  Epistle  composed  so  shortly  before  that  canon  was 
formed.  This  very  purpose  of  purification  from  interpolation 
presupposed  that  the  writings  so  interpolated  must  have 
been  in  existence  for  some  period  of  time  (Siefifert,  Galater- 
brief,  p.  31). 

Two  points  of  further  interest  stand  out  in  this  external 
evidence  : 

(i)  The  fact  that  the  heathen  philosopher  Celsus 
quotes,  "  The  world  is  crucified  unto  me,  and  I  unto  the 
world  "  (Gal.  vi.  14),  which,  according  to  Origen,  is  the  only 
sentence  which  Celsus  cites  from  St.  Paul.  And  how 
significant  is  the  citation,  in  spite  of  the  contempt  with 
which  Celsus  quotes  the  words  !  He  shows  us  how  long 
before  his  days  the  expressions  in  which  St.  Paul  tells  of 
his  glorying  in  the  Cross  had  become  an  everyday  saying  in 
the  Christian  community  :  "  Men,"  he  cries,  "  who  differ  so 
widely  among  themselves,  and  inveigh  against  each  other 
most  shamefully  in  their  quarrels,  may  all  be  heard  using 
the  words,  '  The  world  is  crucified  unto  me,  and  I  unto  the 
world.' " 


38      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

(2)  The  sentence  in  the  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thekla,  which 
also  carries  us  back  to  the  second  century,  certainly  appears 
to  be  moulded  upon  the  language  of  Gal.  ii.  8,  "  For 
he  that  wrought  with  me  unto  the  gospel  wrought  with  me 
also  unto  baptism  "  (see  Lightfoot,  u.s.  p.  62,  and  Jacquier, 
U.S.  p.  210). 

Once  more :  if  the  authenticity  of  an  Epistle  could 
be  proved  by  reference  and  deference  to  a  multitude  of 
authorities,  this  would  be  pre-eminently  the  case  with  the 
Epistle  before  us.  Even  the  Englishman  Evanson  (1792), 
whose  name  is  mentioned  so  often  as  that  of  the  first 
opponent  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  in  modern  days,  left  the 
Galatian  Epistle  unattacked,  although  he  refused  to  accept 
Romans,  Ephesians,  Colossians,  and  threw  doubts  upon 
Philippians  and  Titus  and  Philemon. 

But  no  voice  was  raised  against  the  Galatian  Epistle 
until  in  1850  Bruno  Bauer  attacked  not  only  it,  but  every 
one  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  like  his  successors  Pierson,  Loman, 
Steck,  and  Van  Manen.  To  these  writers  some  attention 
has  been  already  directed  ;  but  it  is  not  perhaps  surprising, 
after  what  has  been  said,  that  Dr.  Zahn,  in  his  Einlcitung,  i. 
175,  should  think  that  it  is  quite  sufficient  for  his  purpose 
to  give  a  mere  list  of  the  attacks  upon  the  Epistle  without 
stopping  to  examine  them,  because  he  thinks  their  im- 
portance to  be  so  insignificant.  But  Lipsius,  Holtzmann, 
Schmiedel,  and  others  also  range  themselves  on  this 
occasion  upon  the  side  of  the  conservative  critics,  the  former, 
as  is  admitted,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  Dutch  writers. 
Professor  Sieffert,  who  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  a  repre- 
sentative and  moderate  German  writer,  reviews  up  to  date, 
in  the  latest  edition  of  Meyer's  Commentary,  the  different 
attacks,  and  concludes  that  the  Epistle  may  be  accepted 
with  the  fullest  right ;  that  Loman's  objections,  like  those  of 
B.  Bauer  and  Pierson,  are  destitute  of  any  solid  foundation  ; 
and  that  all  attempts  to  break  up  the  Galatian   Epistle  into 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         39 

various  parts,  or  to  find  in  it  a  series  of  interpolations,  rest 
entirely  upon  most  subjective  and  arbitrary  canons  of  taste 
{Galaterbrief,  pp.  25,  33). 

What  representation  do  these  three  Epistles  give  us 
of  the  person  of  Christ?  Of  their  bearing  upon  the  life  of 
our  Lord,  and  His  teaching,  I  propose  to  speak  in  a 
second  series. 

The  frequency  with  which  St.  Paul  addresses  Jesus  as  "  the 
Lord  "  (Kvpto?)  in  his  earliest  Epistles  is  very  remarkable. 
No  criticism  has  sufficed  to  do  away  with  the  peculiar 
significance  of  this  title. 

It  was  used,  no  doubt,  of  the  Roman  Emperor  (Acts  xxv. 
26)  ;  it  was  used,  no  doubt,  in  ancient. days  to  express  the 
relation  of  a  king  to  his  subjects,  and  we  may  admit  that  it 
was  employed  in  earlier  religions  to  express  the  relation 
between  a  god  and  his  worshippers.  But  it  is  not  sufficient 
to  say  that  St.  Paul  uses  it  as  a  silent  protest  against  the 
Christian  acknowledgment  of  any  other  Lord,  even  the 
Roman  Caesar,  as  a  rival  to  the  Lordship  of  Christ  ;  or  that 
when  the  Christians  called  Jesus  "  the  Lord  "  they  would 
have  meant  that  He  is  the  true  "  divine  Lord  "  in  opposi- 
tion to  "  the  God  and  Lord  "  on  the  imperial  throne  (Dalman, 
Words  of  Jesus,  p.  329  ff).  All  this  would  surely  be  re- 
markable enough,  inasmuch  as  the  homage  paid  to  the 
Master  of  countless  legions  and  of  the  civilised  world  is 
compared,  or  rather  contrasted,  with  the  higher  homage  paid 
to  a  peasant  who  had  died  on  the  Cross  of  shame,  the  death 
of  a  slave. 

But  it  is  much  more  to  the  point  to  frankly  admit  that 
St.  Paul  had  very  far  overstepped  the  limits  of  Christ's 
humanity  when  he  finds  in  Him  the  Lord  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  declares  that  in  Him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead.  "  The  Lord  "  was  the  Old  Testament  name 
for  God,  and  in  that  title  the  fact  that  Paul  regards  Jesus  as 
divine  was  contained,  even  if  the  Apostle  does  not  actually 


40      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

call  Him  by  the  name  of  God  (Wernle,  Die  Anfdnge  unserer 
Religion,  pp.  262,  295).  That  the  title  was  applied  to  God 
in  the  Old  Testament,  that  it  meets  us  in  the  LXX.  and 
Apocryphal  books,  and  that  it  passed  from  thence  into 
the  current  language  of  the  Church  may  all  be  true 
enough  (Dalman,  Words  of  Jesus,  181,  329);  and  we 
may  also  admit  that  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  know,  in 
the  Christian  use  of  the  term,  whether  God  or  Christ 
is  meant.  But  what  we  have  to  deal  with  is  not  merely 
the  fact  that  Paul  refers  the  term  "  Lord  "  so  many  times 
to  Jesus  in  his  earliest  Epistles,  although  this  in  itself  is 
full  of  significance,  but  that  he  so  often  associates  Jesus  in 
his  writings  with  the.  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament,  not 
only  in  name,  but  in  attributes,  and  that  he  gives  him  the 
title  "  the  Lord  "  most  frequently  when  he  has  Him  before 
his  eyes  as  the  exalted  Lord.  It  is,  moreover,  most  im- 
portant to  note  that  no  less  than  forty-three  times  St.  Paul 
uses  the  formula  "  in  the  Lord,"  and  the  phrase  evidently 
has  the  same  significance  as  his  favourite  formula,  "  in 
Christ  "  {Iv  XpLCTTO)),  in  whom  he  lives  and  moves  and  has 
his  being.  It  is  no  wonder  that  it  should  be  maintained 
that  we  have  no  right  to  regard  the  term  "  Lord  "  as  used 
by  Paul  with  any  other  than  a  purely  religious  significance 
(Peine,  Jesus  Christus  tind  Paulus,  p.  38,  as  against  the 
strictures  of  Dr.  Deissmann).^ 

There  are  further  points  of  interest  in  the  use  of  this  title 
"  Lord  "  by  St.  Paul  in  the  Thessalonian  Epistles.  In 
twenty-four  passages  in  his  writings  we  have  the  phrase 
"  the  Lord  Jesus,"  and  no  less  than  ten  of  these  occur  in 
these  two  earliest  Epistles  (Peine,  u.s.  p.  40),  as  if  from  the 
very  commencement  of  his  written  teaching  to  his  converts 
the  Apostle  would  impress  upon  them  that  the  earthly  Jesus 
and    the    heavenly    Lord    were   one    and    the    same.      How 

'  Cf.  also  Zahn,  Eifileitu7ig,  i.  1S2  ;  and  Sanday,  Art.  "  Son  of  God," 
Hastings,  B.D.,  iv.  577. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         41 

exalted  were  the  conceptions  which  St.  Paul  associated  with 
that  one  and  the  same  Jesus  we  can  the  better  realise  when 
we  remember  that  the  eschatological  teaching  which  forms 
so  large  a  part  of  these  two  Epistles  centres  around  the 
coming  of  "  the  Lord  Jesus,"  that  His  day  is  the  day  of  the 
Lord,  as  in  the  Old  Testament  the  judgment  day  of  Jehovah 
was  also  the  day  of  the  Lord  (cf  i  Thess.  iv.  15,  v.  2,  23)/ 

It  has  recently  been  maintained  that  Paul,  in  his  eschatology, 
still  keeps  fast  to  Jewish  monotheism  ;  but  the  considerations 
which  have  just  been  urged  show  us  that  nothing  less  than 
a  divine  prerogative  of  the  highest  order  is  ascribed  to  Jesus, 
when  He  is  thus  depicted  as  the  future  Judge,  a  prerogative 
which  in  the  Old  Testament  belongs  to  God,  and  to  God 
only. 

One  important  point  may  be  at  once  noted  in  this  con- 
nection. Dr.  Harnack  has  lately  given  us  another  brilliant 
book  entitled  The  Mission  ajid  Spread  of  Christianity  in  the 
First  Three  Centuries.  "  In  the  paradox,"  he  writes,  "  that 
the  Saviour  is  also  the  Judge,  Christianity  is  superior  to 
other  religions  "  (p.  66). 

But  this  paradox,  so  striking,  at  once  so  solemn  and  so 
assuring,  meets  us  not  as  an  afterthought  in  the  Christian 
system,  but  in  the  earliest  Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  In  the 
same  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  which  speaks  of  the  day 
of  the  Lord,  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  with  all  His 
saints,  we  read,  "  For  God  appointed  us  not  unto  wrath,  but 
unto  the  obtaining  of  salvation  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  "  (ch.  v.  9).  It  surely  need  not  surprise  us  that  in 
these  two  Epistles  prayer  should  be  addressed  to  Him  who 
is  the  Giver  of  grace  and  by  whom  we  obtain  salvation, 
"  delivering  us  "  (a  present  participle)  "  from  the  wrath  to 
come  "  (i.  10). 

In  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the  earliest,  prayer  to  Christ, 
the  same  address  occurs,  "  Lord  Jesus"  (Acts  vii.  59).      The 

'  See,  further,  Lecture  XI 


42      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

correct  reading  of  the  context  seems  to  be,  "  They  stoned 
Stephen  calling  upon  the  Lord"  ;  and  this  phrase  "  calling 
upon  "  is  the  familiar  phrase  of  the  Old  Testament  to  call 
upon  the  Lord  Jehovah  ;  and  we  read  how  St.  Paul,  in  writing 
to  the  Corinthian  Church,  thus  describes  Christians  as  those 
"  who  call  upon  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  (i  Cor. 
i.  2).  Dr.  Cheyne  seeks  to  weaken  the  force  of  this  phrase, 
and  alleges  that  it  cannot  be  said  St.  Paul  knows  anything 
of  an  adoration  of  Jesus  side  by  side  with  the  adoration  of 
God.^  But  this  phrase  certainly  points  to  the  conclusion 
that  St.  Paul  did  admit  such  an  adoration.  The  way  in  which 
Jesus  the  Lord  is  associated  with  God  the  Father  through- 
out the  first  Thessalonian  Epistle,  to  look  no  further,  bears 
out  this  conclusion  ;  and  how  much  is  involved  in  such  words 
as  these  (i  Thess.  iii.  11,  13),  "Now  may  our  God  and 
Father  Himself,  and  our  Lord  Jesus,  direct  our  way  unto 
you  "  ;  or,  again,  "  Before  our  God  and  Father  at  the  coming 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  with  all  His  saints  "  ! 

The  title  "  Lord  Jesus "  may  well  have  been,  even  thus 
early,  amongst  Jewish  Christians,  a  customary  formula 
(cf.  Rev.  xxii.  20),  and  St.  Paul  may  often  have  heard  it  as 
he  persecuted  those  who  called  upon  the  Name  (Acts  ix.  14), 
even  before  he  heard  it,  as  may  well  have  been  the  case,  on 
the  lips  of  the  dying  Stephen. 

We  turn  to  the  Galatian  Epistle,  and  we  again  note  that 
it  is  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  who,  with  the  Father,  is  the 
Giver  of  grace  and  peace.  The  Apostle,  who  had  once  been 
exceedingly  zealous  for  the  tradition  of  the  fathers,  now 
glories  in  nothing  save  in  the  Cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  If  the  Apostle  looks  back  upon  the  earthly  life 
of  Jesus,  He  is  "the  Lord"  (Gal.  i.  19);  if  he  looks  forward 
to  the  success  of  his  own  Apostolic  work,  his  ground  of 
confidence  is  "  in  the  Lord  "  (Gal.  v.  10). 

In  the  opening  verses  of  this  Galatian  Epistle  we  read 
'  Art.  "  Prayer,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iii.  3832. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         43 

for  the  first  time  the  familiar  title  by  which  St.  Paul 
expressed  his  absolute  devotion  to  his  Master.  "  If  I  were 
still  pleasing  men,"  he  writes,  "  I  should  not  be  a  servant, 
a  bond-slave  of  Christ"  (i.  10).  In  the  closing  verses  of  this 
same  Epistle  he  appeals  to  the  scars  which  he  bore  in  his 
body :  the  scars  of  persecution  from  the  stones  of  the  mob, 
or  from  the  lictors'  rods,  marked  him  as  the  slave  of  Jesus. 

And  for  the  Galatians,  as  for  St.  Paul,  this  same  Jesus  is 
no  mere  earthly  Teacher.  He  is  so  closely  associated  with 
God  the  Father  (as  we  may  note  in  the  opening  verses  of 
the  Galatian  letter,  no  less  than  in  the  address  of  each 
of  the  Thessalonian  letters)  because  He  is  the  Son  of  God, 
the  Son  whom  it  pleased  the  Father  to  reveal  in  and  by 
St.  Paul  (Gal.  i.  16),  the  Son  whose  birth  into  the  world  in 
the  fulness  of  time,  whose  work,  whose  present  relationship 
to  the  Father  and  to  the  Church,  marked  His  Sonship  as 
divine  and  unique. 

It  is,  indeed,  sometimes  urged  that  although  this  title, 
"  Son  of  God,"  was  no  doubt  the  centre  of  the  Pauline 
theology,  and  that,  whilst  it  was  employed  in  the  early 
Church  in  a  very  harmless  sense,  it  was  Paul  who  gave  it 
a  mythical  sense  intelligible  enough  to  the  Greeks  and  the 
heathen,  accustomed  as  they  were  to  an  indefinite  number 
of  gods,  to  whom  Jesus  stands  contrasted  as  the  Son  of 
God  ;  but  that  such  a  conception  was  utterly  inconceivable 
on  Jewish  ground  (Wernle,  Die  Anfdnge  unserer  Religion, 
pp.  151,  294),  where  no  place  could  be  found  for  any  second 
being  beside  the  one  true  God. 

But  the  title  "  Son  of  God,"  if  it  was  a  Gentile,  was  also 
a  Jewish  title  ;  and  if  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  was  or  was 
not  a  recognised  title  of  the  Messiah,  it  is  most  significant 
that  the  first  and  earliest  intimation  which  we  have  in  Acts 
of  St.  Paul's  Christian  teaching  is  this,  that  "  in  the  syna- 
gogues," not  to  Greeks  or  Romans,  but  to  Jews  and 
proselytes,  "  he   proclaimed   Jesus  that   He   is   the   Son  of 


44      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

God  "  (Acts  ix.  20)  ;  that  he  confounded  the  Jews  at 
Damascus,  proving  that  this  Jesus  is  the  Christ  (v.  22). 
Moreover,  this  historical  note  in  Acts  does  not  stand  alone  ; 
both  the  Apostle's  own  personal  testimony  and  the  validity 
of  his  reasoning  from  psalmist  and  prophet  were  summed 
up,  as  it  were,  in  that  one  brief  sentence  which  meets  us  in 
the  opening  chapter  of  the  Galatian  Epistle,  "  It  was  the 
good  pleasure  of  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me."  Is  it  said 
that  the  title  "  Son  of  God  "  was  often  used  of  the  Roman 
emperors,  like  the  title  "  Lord  "  ?  No  doubt  it  was  ;  and  a 
most  interesting  use  of  the  title  has  lately  been  given  us 
from  the  papyri,  because  it  is  taken  from  a  letter  of  the 
Emperor  Augustus  himself,  dated  5  A.D.^  But  Dalman,  ti.s. 
p.  273,  points  out  that  "  this  use  of  the  term  has  really 
nothing  to  do  with  divine  Sonship,"  and  that  it  was  due  to 
the  modesty  of  the  emperor,  which  prompted  him  to  be 
known  as  merely  "  the  son  of  one  who  was  transferred  to  a 
place  among  the  gods,"  his  father  by  adoption  being  Caesar, 
now  taken  to  be  a  Divus. 

To  this  simple  yet  most  profound  title,  "  the  Son,"  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  return  ;  but  for  the  present  this  one 
remark  may  be  made.  If  St.  Paul  had  interpreted  this 
title,  "  Son  of  God,"  in  a  way  different  from  that  in  use 
amongst  his  brother  Apostles  ;  if  in  associating  the  Person 
who  bore  it  so  closely  and  intimately  with  God  the  Father, 
he  had  been  guilty  of  placing  himself  in  opposition  to  the 
beliefs  of  the  Jerusalem  Church ;  if,  in  other  words,  the 
deification  of  Christ  was  due  to  St.  Paul,  how  is  it  that  we 
do  not  hear  of  any  such  opposition,  of  any  such  violation 
of  Jewish  feeling  and  belief?  ^ 

The  Twelve  and  St.  Paul  differed,  no  doubt,  in  many 
ways  ;   but  there  is  no   trace  that  the  former  opposed  the 

^Expositor,    February,    1903,   p.    114,  "Notes   from   the  Papyri," 
Moulton. 
''  Art.  "Son  of  God"  (Sanday),  Hastings,  B.D.,  iv.  ^^T- 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         45 

Gentile  Apostle  in  the  estimate  which  he  formed  of  the 
person  of  Christ  and  of  His  relationship  to  the  Father.^ 

In  this  Galatian  Epistle  St.  Paul  tells  us  how  at  his  first 
visit  to  Jerusalem  he  visits  Peter  and  James,  "  the  Lord's 
brother."  How  full  of  significance  !  The  title  was  already 
familiar  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia  ;  it  must  have  been 
familiar  earlier  still  to  the  Church  at  Jerusalem.  Nothing, 
again,  is  more  easy  than  to  assert  that  if  the  word  "  Son  " 
had  a  completely  different  meaning  when  applied  to  Christ 
and  to  other  men,  it  is  impossible  to  infer  our  sonship  from 
His,  and  that  it  is  as  the  Founder  of  a  spiritual  brotherhood 
that  Jesus  stands  alone  in  His  pre-eminence  as  the  "  Son 
of  God."  This  language,  I  say,  is  easy  enough  to  adopt; 
but  it  is  interesting  and  important  to  compare  it  with  what 
the  Apostle  says  in  some  utterances  of  his  earliest  Epistles. 

If  we  cannot  say  that  the  expression  "  sent  forth  "  Gal.  iv.  4, 
assumes  the  pre-existence  of  the  Son  (so  Lightfoot,  Sieffert, 
and  also  B.  Weiss,  Bibl.  Theol.  des  N.T.,  p.  295),^  it  surely 
cannot  be  said  to  find  an  adequate  interpretation  in  the 
supposition  that  "  sent  forth  "  is  used  of  Christ,  as  it  might 
be  of  any  ordinary  human  being. 

The  whole  clause  "  God  sent  forth  His  Son  "  must  clearly 
be  interpreted  in  relation  to  its  context  and  in  relation  to 
its  use  not  only  in  this  Epistle,  but  in  such  passages  as 
Rom.  viii.  3,  32. 

In  the  first  place,  we  notice  that  the  birth  of  this  Son  of 
God  is  regarded  as  an  event  to  which  all  else  in  the  world's 
history  had  led  up,  as  an  event  occurring  "  when  the  fulness 
of  time  had  come."  Moreover,  He  is  described  as  "  made  of 
a  woman,  made  under  the  law."  The  first  clause  might  be 
used  of  every  human  being  ;  the  second  of  every  Israelite  :  but 
here  the  peculiarity  is  that  this  Person  is  sent  forth  from  an 
existence  in  which  He  was  not  made  of  a  woman,  etc.  ;   He 

^  See  Lecture  X.,  and  cf.  2  Cor.  i.  19, 

^  To  these  may  be  added  Zahn  in  his  Galaterbrief,  p.  199  (1905). 


46      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

becomes  what  He  was  not  before  (on  the  force  of  the  parti- 
ciple, see  Sieffert,  Galaterhrief,  p.  292,  and  Weiss,  u.s.  p.  296). 

If  it  is  still  maintained  that  the  expression  "  sent  forth  " 
is  used  simply  of  a  human  birth,  it  must  be  still  obvious 
that  the  Apostle's  language  must  be  interpreted  by  what 
he  says  elsewhere,  and  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  while 
on  the  one  hand  St.  Paul's  Epistles  emphasise  the  Davidic 
origin  of  Christ  according  to  the  flesh,  they  contain  in  other 
passages,  which  we  are  fully  justified  in  referring  to  him, 
testimonies  to  the  divine  Sonship  and  eternal  pre-existence 
of  Christ  (cf  i  Cor.  viii.  6  ;   Col.  i.  15-18  ;   Phil.  ii.  5).^ 

It  cannot  with  any  satisfaction  be  pleaded  that  these 
passages,  at  all  events,  are  adequately  explained  by  sup- 
posing that  the  Apostle  may  refer  to  an  ideal  pre-existence. 
Moreover,  this  passage  in  Galatians  can  scarcely  be 
considered  apart  from  the  passages  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  The  two  passages  occur  in  the  same  chapter. 
In  viii.  3  we  read,  "  For  what  the  law  could  not  do  in  that 
it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God  sending  His  own  Son." 
In  this  verse  we  have  an  emphatic  pronoun,  "  His  own,"  a 
pronoun  which  marks  the  community  of  nature  which  the 
Son  shares  with  the  Father  (Sanday  and  Headlam,  Com- 
mentary, ill  loco)  ;  and  Pfleiderer,  in  the  new  edition  of  his 
Urchristentum,  joins  this  verse  with  Gal.  iv.  4,  in  proof  of 
the  belief  of  Paul  in  the  pre-existence  of  Christ.  With 
this  verse  we  are  at  once  led  to  compare  a  later  verse 
(viii.  32)  :  "  He  that  spared  not  His  own  Son,"  in  which  the 
phrase  "  His  own  "  signifies  a  participation  by  the  Son  in 
the  essential  nature  of  the  Father.  It  is  noticeable  that 
in  this  passage  St.  Paul  employs  the  same  expression  of 
the  sacrifice  made  by  God  which  is  used  in  the  LXX  of  the 
sacrifice  made  by  Abraham  in  not  "  sparing  "  his  son,  his 
only  son.      Such   a  coincidence  of  expression   can   scarcely 

'  See  for  the  force  of  these  passages,  in  this  connection,  Zockler  in 
the  new  edition  of  Herzog's  Ejicycl.,  Heft  81,  p.  6  (1900). 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         47 

have  been  accidental  :  it  occurs  twice  in  the  narrative  in 
Genesis ;  and  thus  we  may  see  in  an  incidental,  but  in  a 
very  distinct,  manner  how  St.  Paul  recognised  the  identity 
of  nature  between  God  and  Him  who  is  called  by  the 
Apostle  "  God's  own  Son."  Otherwise,  it  has  well  been  asked, 
where  would  be  the  force  of  the  comparison  with  the  human 
father  who  withheld  not  his  only  son  ?  (Gifford,  in  loco). 
In  the  latest  edition  of  his  LApotre  Paul  the  French  writer 
Sabatier  is  constrained  to  recognise  the  marvellous  force 
of  the  expression  under  discussion  :  "  For  Christ,  this  dignity 
of  being  God's  own  Son  is  a  dignity  by  right  of  nature, 
whilst  we  only  gain  it  as  a  favour.  Christ  is  God's  essential 
Son,  and  so  Paul  evidently  used  the  expression  in  a 
special  manner."  If,  indeed,  we  wanted  any  proof  that  the 
terms  in  these  passages  referred  to  could  not  mean  any- 
thing less  than  the  description  of  a  divine  and  pre-existent 
being,  we  need  only  look  at  Van  Manen's  De  Brief  aan 
de  Romeinen,  pp.  132-7.  In  his  eagerness  to  show  the 
hard-and-fast  line  of  demarcation  between  the  tenets  of  a 
primitive  and  simple  Christianity,  and  what  he  regards  as 
a  later  Pauline  teaching,  he  frankly  admits  that  the  verses 
under  discussion  could  mean  nothing  less  than  that  which 
every  Christian  believes  them  to  mean.^ 

When,  too,  we  consider  the  work  which  the  Son  came  to 
accomplish,  "  to  redeem  them  that  are  under  law,"  such  a 
work  could  hardly  be  attributed  to  any  human  being,  for 
"  no  man  can  redeem  his  brother  or  make  agreement  unto 
God  for  him."     As  Matthew  Arnold  sings  : 

From  David's  lips  this  word  did  roll, 

'Tis  true  and  living  yet ; 
No  man  can  save  his  brother's  soul, 

Nor  pay  his  brother's  debt. 


^  See  also  Weiss,  Bzbl.  l^heoL,  p.  287,  where  he  lays  stress  upon 
these  passages  in  Romans,  as  marking  a  specific  personal  relation 
between  God  and  the  Son,  and  that,  too,  in  language  which  carries  us 
back  not  only  to  the  Old  Testament,  but  to  Christ's  own  words. 


48       TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Nor  can  such  language  be  adequately  interpreted  as 
meaning  that  this  work  was  similar  to  that  achieved  by  any 
earthly  deliverer,  or  that  the  term  "  Saviour "  could  be 
applied  to  Jesus  in  any  lower  sense  than  as  a  Saviour  from 
sin.  "  Imagination  more  or  less  mythological,"  says  a  recent 
Unitarian  writer,  "  may  have  mingled  with  the  corruptions 
of  Messianic  salvation  ;  but  nevertheless,  the  idea  of  salvation 
from  sin  is  fundamental  in  the  New  Testament  "  (as  against 
Wernle,  u.s.  p.  150).^  And  in  that  which  most  of  us 
regard  as  St.  Paul's  earliest  Epistle  (i  Thessalonians)  we 
must  remember  that  we  read  of  Christ  as  the  Redeemer 
delivering  us  from  the  coming  wrath  (i.  Ii),  giving  us  life 
through  His  death  (v.  10),  obtaining  for  us  salvation  (v.  9  ; 
cf  Gal.  i.  4,  ii.  20). 

As  we  consider  these  thoughts  and  these  applications  of 
St.  Paul's  words,  we  may  well  ask  if  any  Christology  or 
Soteriology  can  really  go  beyond  that  which  meets  us  in 
this  earliest  group  of  Epistles. 

A  proof  of  the  primitive  Christology  of  the  earlier  part 
of  the  Acts  has  indeed  been  rightly  insisted  upon  in  its  use 
of  such  a  term  as  "  Servant  "  in  its  application  to  our  Lord  ; 
but  whilst  this  is  undoubtedly  the  case,  there  are  some 
expressions  even  in  these  earlier  chapters  which  gain 
fuller  meaning  if  read  in  the  light  of  the  Sonship  of  Christ. 
For  example,  St.  Peter,  in  his  Pentecostal  Sermon,  can  say, 
"  Having  received  of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  He  hath  poured  forth  this  which  ye  see  and  hear " 
(Acts  ii.  33). 

We  may  note  in  this  verse  two  points  of  the  greatest 
significance:  (i)  The  title  "the  Father,"  which  is  never 
used  in  these  early  addresses  of  the  relation  of  God  to 
believers,  is  here  used  absolutely,  but  also  in  close  relationship 
to  Him  who  was  both  Lord  and  Christ.  (2)  The  same 
divine  energy  which  is  attributed  by  the  prophet  Joel  to 
'  Dr.  J.  Drummond,  Thoughts  on  Christology,  p.  48  (1902). 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS         49 

Jehovah  in  the  outpouring  of  His  Spirit  is  here  plainly 
attributed  to  Jesus,  exalted  by  the  right  hand  of  God 
(Weiss,  Bibl.  Theol.,  p.  129-30). 

In  an  earlier  part  of  the  same  Sermon,  other  words  of 
the  same  prophet,  Joel,  would  seem  to  be  transferred  to  Jesus  ; 
and  if  this  is  so,  it  is  most  significant  that  the  same  ex- 
pression, "  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,"  which  is 
used  later  by  St.  Paul  in  his  description  of  the  Christians 
at  Corinth  as  those  who  called  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  (i  Cor.  ii.  2),  is  also  used  at  this  early  date  in  the 
Church  of  Jerusalem  with  the  same  application  (cf.  Acts 
ii.  V.  21  and  v.  36;  and  see  also  Rom.  x.  13  for  a  similar 
transference  of  the  words  of  an  Old  Testament  prophecy). 

But  with  St.  Peter's  language  before  us,  we  may  see  that 
it  would  have  been  a  bold  stroke  for  a  writer,  revising  or 
composing  the  speeches  in  Acts  at  a  late  date,  to  have 
attributed  the  use  of  the  title  "  the  Son  of  God  "  of  Jesus 
for  the  first  time  to  St.  Paul  (ix.  20),  a  title  which  is  not 
actually  employed  by  St.  Peter,  however  closely  he  approaches 
to  it,  and  which  is  probably  never  used  in  Acts  again,  or  at 
all  events  not  until  a  much  later  date.  How  St.  Paul's 
proclamation  of  the  Son  of  God  is  in  perfect  harmony  with 
his  words  to  the  Galatians  (i.  16)  we  have  already  seen  ;  and 
this  Son  of  God,  of  whom  the  Apostle  speaks  to  the 
Galatians  as  revealed  in  him,  he  could  speak  of  at  a  still 
earlier  date  in  writing  to  the  Thessalonians  as  the  Son  for 
whom  he  was  ever  waiting,  his  ever  present  Redeemer  and 
Lord. 

During  the  last  few  days  a  very  distinguished  man  of 
science  has  been  informing  us  that  while  the  commandments 
are  moral,  it  is  astonishing  how  little  we  find  of  creeds  and 
dogmas  in  the  New  Testament.  One  would  have  thought 
that  the  most  cursory  reading  of  St.  Paul's  earliest  Epistles 
would  have  enabled  him  to  find  all  the  outlines  of  a  very 
definite  Creed,  and  he  need  not  have  read  beyond  the  first 

4 


50      TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

chapter  of  i  Thessalonians  to  come  across  a  whole  series 
of  dogmatic  assertions  such  as  these  :  "  To  serve  a  living  and 
true  God,  and  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  heaven,  even  Jesus, 
whom  He  raised  from  the  dead." 

Thus,  then,  in  this  first  group  of  Epistles  we  have  a  view 
of  Christ's  person  and  work  and  of  our  relation  to  Him 
which  the  Apostle  presents  to  his  converts  within  some 
twenty  to  twenty-five  years  of  the  Saviour's  death  upon 
the  Cross  ;  and  which  he  presents,  let  us  always  remember, 
not  as  if  it  was  for  them,  as  for  the  Athenians  of  old,  "  some 
newer  thing  "  to  gratify  some  passing  curiosity  or  some  idle 
fancy,  but  as  that  which  they  had  heard  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Gospel,  which  had  sounded  forth  through  Macedonia 
and  Galatia  alike,  and  an  expression  of  the  belief  not  only 
of  the  Macedonian  and  Galatian  Christians,  but  also  of  the 
Christians  of  Judaea  (i  Thess.  ii.  14  ;  Gal.  i.  22).  And  as 
the  whole  Christian  Church  was  "  in  God  the  Father  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  so,  too,  the  life  of  each  individual 
Christian  was  derived  from  and  sustained  by  Christ  ;  "  for 
as  many  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ  did  put  on 
Christ"  (Gal.  iii.  27). 


LECTURE    IV 

THE    EPISTLES    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS 
AND   ROMANS 

FEW,  if  any,  books  of  the  New  Testament  come  to  us 
with  better  credentials  than  i  Corinthians.  In  a 
previous  lecture  attention  has  already  been  drawn  to  the 
remarkable  testimony  borne  to  this  document  by  St.  Clement 
of  Rome.^  This  testimony  is  met  by  negative  critics  not 
only  by  demanding  a  date — one  might  say,  an  impossible 
date — for  St.  Clement's  letter,  but  by  an  explanation  of  his 
words  to  which  it  may  be  well  briefly  to  refer. 

In  the  first  place,  Van  Manen  contends  that  Clement's 
words  show  that  he  is  quoting  from  a  shorter  form  of 
I  Corinthians,  and  that  when  he  wrote  he  was  not  acquainted 
with  our  canonical  text,  because  there  we  have  the  words, 
"  I  am  of  Christ."  ' 

But  St.  Clement  is  drawing  a  comparison  between  the 
famous  names  of  the  past  and  the  one  or  two  persons  for 
whose  sake  the  Corinthians  were  now  making  sedition. 
Moreover,  he  had  already,  in  the  preceding  chapter  (xlvi.), 
shown  plainly  enough  what  he  would  have  thought  of  those 
who  could  claim  to  be  pre-eminently  members  of  Christ, 
and  it  seems  needless  to  remark  that  there  is  not  the 
slightest  foundation  in  the  MSS.  for  any  such  supposition  as 

^  All  this  may  be  confirmed  by  the  recent  New  Testame?it  in  the 
Apostolic  Fathers  (cf.,  e.g.,  pp.  41,  67,  137-8). 
*  De  Brieven  aan  de  Korinthiers,  pp.  32,  76. 

51 


52       TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

that  of  Van  Manen,  or  for  the  assertion  that  the  words  "  I 
am  of  Christ  "  were  not  always  part  of  the  text  and  that 
some   reviser   or   redactor   had    inserted   them. 

Van  Manen's  second  objection  is  based  upon  the  con- 
tention that  Clement's  words  do  not  lead  us  to  imagine 
that  St.  Paul  was  speaking  of  what  actually  took  place  at 
Corinth,  although  undoubtedly  there  were  divisions  in  that 
Church  in  the  days  of  Paul.  The  Apostle  is  speaking  not 
historically,  but  spiritually  {u.s.  p.  117).  In  i  Cor.  iv.  6 
Paul  says,  or  rather  the  unknown  writer  of  the  Epistle  says, 
"  These  things  I  have  transferred  to  myself  and  Cephas," 
so  that  what  had  previously  been  said  of  them  was  not 
really  applicable  to  them.  But  if  all  the  description  of 
different  parties  and  of  the  leaders  in  i  Corinthians  is  not 
to  be  taken  historically,  then,  argues  Van  Manen,  we  can 
hardly  hold  fast  to  the  doctrine  that  we  have  in  that  Epistle 
a  writing  of  St.  Paul. 

But  when  St.  Paul  says,  "  These  things  I  have  in  a  figure 
transferred  to  myself  and  Apollos  for  your  sakes,"  his  words 
do  not  mean  that  the  titles  upon  which  the  Corinthian 
parties  prided  themselves  had  no  existence,  but  simply  that 
he  had  in  a  figure  spoken  of  himself  and  Apollos  as  if  they 
were  party  leaders,  when  in  reality  they  had  never  behaved 
as  such  (Sanday,  Encycl.  Bibl.,  i.  905). 

In  addition,  however,  to  this  one  most  important  passage 
which  has  just  been  quoted  from  St.  Clement,  there  are  the 
striking  resemblances  in  his  forty-ninth  chapter  to  the 
Pauline  "  Psalm  of  Love  "  in  i  Cor.  xiii.  (Weiss,  Einleitung 
tn  das  N.T.,  p.  34),  to  say  nothing  of  other  passages 
which  may  be  fairly  taken  as  reminiscences  of  our  canonical 
Epistle.  How  Van  Manen  deals  with  this  thirteenth  chapter 
of  I  Corinthians  we  shall  see  below,  when  we  return  to  his 
further  objections  against  the   Epistle. 

In  St.  Polycarp's  letter  to  the  Philippians  we  have  the 
first    instance    of    a    quotation    from    any   of    the    Epistles 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS    AND   ROMANS     53 

(xi.  2  ;  I  Cor.  vi.  2),  introduced  by  the  simple  formula  sicut 
Paulus  docet.  And  in  the  same  letter  (v.  3)  we  have  what 
reads  like  a  distinct  reminiscence  of  i  Cor.  vi.  9-10. 

How  does  Van  Manen  deal  with  i  Cor.  vi.  2  ?  He  sees 
in  the  words  attributed  to  Polycarp  a  reference  to  our 
canonical  passage,  even  if  one  regards  the  last  three  words, 
"  as  Paul  teaches,"  with  Credner,  as  spurious,  because  Poly- 
carp is  not  accustomed  to  name  his  authority  in  quotations. 

One  would  have  thought  that  this  decisive  reference  by 
Polycarp  to  i  Cor.  vi.  2  would  prove  that  at  least  this 
Corinthian  Epistle  was  known  widely  and  had  gained  con- 
siderable authority  and  currency  at  an  early  date.  But  Van 
Manen  is  quite  equal  to  the  occasion.  The  so-called 
Epistle  of  Polycarp  is  not  written  by  him  at  all  ;  it  is  an 
Epistle  of  little  value,  and  comes  to  us  from  some  unknown 
writer  after  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp,  and  it  may  best 
be  placed  about  160  A.D.  {Encycl.  Bibl.,  iii.  3713,  and  De 
Ouddudstelijke  Letter kunde,  p.  83). 

But  in  the  same  paragraph  we  are  told  that  this  ficti- 
tious Epistle  was  known  to  Irenseus,  whose  work,  Against 
Heresies^  Van  Manen  placed  about  180  A.D.  But  it 
certainly  seems  strange,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  that  this 
Epistle  of  Polycarp,  coming  to  us  from  some  obscure  author, 
should  have  become  known  in  such  a  short  space  of  time  to 
Irenaeus,  and  that  he  should  speak  of  it  as  a  very  powerful 
Epistle,  and  that  he  should  name  it  as  the  work  of  Polycarp 
(some  twenty  years  later) — as  the  work,  that  is,  of  a  famous 
saint  and  bishop,  whom  Irenasus  himself  had  known,  and  at 
whose  feet  he  had  once  sat  as  a  disciple. 

But  closely  united  with  the  testimony  of  St.  Polycarp  we 
have  that  of  the  letters  of  St.  Ignatius,  and  the  written 
testimony  of  both  these  writers  falls,  according  to  Harnack, 
within  the  first  quarter  of  the  second  century  {Chron.,  i. 
p.  406),  unless,  with  Van  Manen,  we  rule  the  whole  of  the 
Ignatian  letters  out  of  court,  and  nullify  the  labours  of  such 


54      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

scholars  as  Bishop  Lightfoot  in   England,  and  of  Dr.  Zahn 
in  Germany. 

It  is  not  only  that  in  these  letters  of  St.  Ignatius  we 
find  expressions  which  may  be  fairly  considered  as  verbal 
references  to  i  Corinthians,  as,  e.g.,  when  we  read  Ignatius, 
Eph.,  xviii.  i,  "  Where  is  the  wise,  where  is  the  disputer  of 
this  world  ?  "  (cf  i  Cor.  i.  20)  ;  but  that  there  are  passages 
in  which  the  writer  seems,  as  it  were,  to  be  saturated  with 
the  thoughts  and  expressions  of  St.  Paul.  For  example, 
he  writes  in  words  just  preceding  those  already  quoted, 
"  My  spirit  is  made  an  offscouring  for  the  Cross,"  applying 
to  himself  a  word  used  nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testament 
except  by  St.  Paul  in  i  Cor.  iv.  13. 

So,  too,  in  writing  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans  (ix.  2),  St. 
Ignatius  uses  language  in  which  we  cannot  fail  to  trace 
the  recollection  of  St.  Paul's  language  about  himself:  "  For 
myself,  I  am  ashamed  to  be  called  one  of  them  ;  for  neither 
am  I  worthy,  being  the  last  of  them,  and  an  untimely  birth, 
but  I  have  found  mercy  "  (cf.  i  Cor.  xv.  8),  the  word  used  by 
St.  Ignatius  being  again  a  word  used  by  St.  Paul  of  himself, 
"  one  born  out  of  due  time,"  a  word  found  nowhere  else  in 
the  New  Testament. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Epistle  used  most 
freely  in  the  Ignatian  letters  is  the  Epistle  under  discussion 
(i  Corinthians). 

Without  stopping  over  the  possible  traces  of  our  Epistle 
in  the  Didache,  we  may  note  the  important  fact  that 
I  Corinthians  (as  also  2  Corinthians),  was  known  to  the 
famous  Gnostic  Basilides,  placed  by  Dr.  Salmon  about 
125  A.D.,  i.e.  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  second  century 
{Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.,  i.  269),  and  that  Marcion  admitted  it 
into  his  canon.  Moreover,  it  was  received  by  the  Gnostic 
sects  of  the  Ophites  and  Perata;,  and  by  the  Gnostic 
leaders  Heracleon  and  Ptolemaeus.  We  need  not,  therefore, 
be  surprised  to  find   undoubted   allusions  to  it   in  the  great 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS   AND   ROMANS     55 

Christian   Apologists,  Justin   Martyr  and  Athenagoras,  or  to 
learn  that  St.  Irenaeus  cites  it  more  than  sixty  times. 

When  we  look  into  the  contents  of  the  Epistle  we  find 
that  while  no  letter  in  the  New  Testament  is  more  closely 
concerned  with  the  practical  aspects 'of  Church  and  social 
life,  the  pettiest  of  details  is  raised  at  once  to  a  question  of 
the  highest  principle,  and  is  viewed  as  affording  a  possible 
illustration  and  exercise  of  the  highest  Christian  grace. 
The  writer  can  discuss  at  length  and  without  partiality  the 
questions  connected  with  public  worship  in  the  Church,  or 
he  can  consider  the  advisability  or  otherwise  of  eating  meat 
offered  to  idols,  because  "  his  inmost  soul  a  holier  strain 
repeats,"  because  the  New  Testament  "  Psalm  of  Love  "  is 
part  and  parcel  of  his  own  life  and  being  :  "  Though  I  speak 
with  the  tongue  of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not  charity, 
I  am  become  as  sounding  brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal."  "  Is 
this,"  wrote  Lord  Lyttelton  long  ago,  in  remarking  on  the 
preference  ascribed  by  St.  Paul  to  unvarying  rectitude  of 
principle  over  every  other  religious  accomplishment  (see 
Paley,  H.P.  xvi.),  "  the  language  of  enthusiasm  ?  Is  it  not  the 
genius  of  enthusiasm  to  set  moral  virtues  infinitely  below 
the  merit  of  faith,  and  of  all  moral  virtues  to  value  that 
least  which  is  most  particularly  enforced  by  St.  Paul — a 
spirit  of  candour,  moderation,  and  peace  ?  Certainly  neither 
the  temper  nor  the  opinions  of  a  man  subject  to  fanatic 
delusions  are  to  be  found  in  this  passage." 

It  seems  almost  incredible  that  any  criticism  worthy  of 
the  name  should  maintain  that  this  "  Psalm  of  Love "  was 
not  originally  a  unity,  and  that  it  should  proceed  to  break 
up  this  wonderful  thirteenth  chapter  of  our  first  Corinthian 
Epistle  into  component  parts.  Thus  it  is  seriously  argued 
that  the  words,  "  Whether  there  be  tongues,  they  shall  cease  " 
(i  Cor.  xiii.  8),  awaken  a  suspicion  of  being  added  to  the 
original,  because  the  word  tongue  is  used  here,  not  as  in 
verse  i,  but  as  it  is  often  used  in  chapters  xii.  and  xiv.      In 


56      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  same  manner  it  is  seriously  urged  against  the  unity  of 
the  chapter  that  whilst  in  verse  9  we  read  of  knowledge  and 
prophecy,  "  for  we  know  in  part  and  we  prophesy  in  part," 
in  verse  8  we  read  of  knowledge,  prophecy,  and  tongues, 
whereas  of  the  latter  {i.e.  of  tongues)  there  is  no  mention  in 
verse  9.  It  is  further  urged  that,  whereas,  according  to 
verses  8- 10,  we  should  expect  that  love  alone  could  be  said 
to  abide,  in  verse  13  we  read  that  faith  and  hope  abide 
also  ! ' 

It  seems  very  difficult  to  take  such  reasoning  seriously, 
and  we  certainly  do  not  envy  any  critic  who  can  thus 
"  murder,  to  dissect."  It  is  sufficient  to  add  that  there  is 
not  the  slightest  MS.  authority  for  any  attempt  to  break 
up  such  a  unity  as  i  Cor.  xiii.,  any  more  than  there  is,  with 
Pierson  and  Naber,  to  break  up  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the 
same  Epistle  into  seven  different  fragments,  an  attempt  for 
which  they  are  severely  taken  to  task  (and  no  wonder)  by 
Clemen  (cf  Die  Einheitlidikeit  der  paidinischen  Brief e,  p.  51). 

We  may  remark  in  passing  that  in  this  same  chapter  (verse 
2)  Steck  finds  one  of  his  proofs  that  the  writer  of  i  Corinthians 
was  dependent  upon  written  Gospels.  It  is  quite  possible, 
as  we  shall  see  later,  that  this  same  chapter  may  contain 
many  references  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus  (cf.  Feine,  Jesus 
Christus  und  Paulus,  p.  75)  ;  but  there  is  no  need  to  suppose 
that  this  teaching  could  only  be  known  through  written 
sources,  and  the  reference  in  question,  in  verse  2,  to  the 
power  of  removing  mountains  may  equally  well  have  been 
borrowed  from  kindred  sayings  current  in  the  Jewish 
schools. 

When  we  turn  to  2  Corinthians  it  seems  strange,  perhaps, 
at  first  sight  that  the  evidences  of  acquaintance  with  it  should 
be  so  uncertain  in  St.  Clement  of  Rome  or  St.  Ignatius.'^      But 

'  Van  Manen,  De  Brieven  aan  de  Korinthiers,  p.  63. 
2  See,   however,   The  New   Tcstatnent  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers, 
pp.  41,  70. 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS   AND    ROMANS     57 

Bishop  Lightfoot  finds  a  reference  in  St.  Polycarp's  Philippians 
(vi.  I,  2  Cor.  viii.  21)  "  providing  always  for  that  which  is 
honourable  in  the  sight  of  God  and  of  men  "  ;  and  although 
this  reference  has  been  considered  doubtful,  as  the  words  in 
2  Corinthians  may  be  based  upon  Prov.  iii.  4,  yet  we  must 
remember  that  Polycarp  was  beyond  doubt  acquainted 
with  I  Corinthians,  and  that  in  this  same  sixth  chapter  of 
his  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  he  uses  words  which  may 
contain  a  reminiscence  of  2  Cor.  v.  10,  as  well  as  of  Rom. 
xiv.  10,  12}  But  considerably  before  the  close  of  the 
second  century  there  is  very  good  ground  for  believing  that 
the  Epistle  was  known  to,  and  used  by,  the  two  Christian 
Apologists,  Athenagoras  and  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  as  also 
by  the  unknown  Apologist  who  wrote  the  charming  little 
Letter  to  Diognetus?  This  writer  makes  a  direct  quotation 
from  I  Cor.  viii.  i,  and  elsewhere  he  combines  undoubted 
reminiscences  of  both  Corinthian  Epistles. 

Moreover,  2  Corinthians  was  known  in  quarters  where  we 
might  not  expect  that  such  knowledge  would  be  so  plainly 
forthcoming.  It  was  known  to  Basilides,  and  it  was  admitted 
by  Marcion  into  his  canon.  Van  Manen  is  evidently  con- 
scious that  this  evidence  would  militate  strongly  against  the 
late  date  to  which  he  assigns  the  Epistle,  and  he  deals  with 
it  in  a  somewhat  curious  manner.  He  admits  that  Basilides 
was  acquainted  with  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  although 
not  in  its  canonical  form.  He  admits  that  Basilides  is  not 
confused  here  with  one  of  his  pupils  :  he  places  him  (so  also 
does  Steck)  about  130  a.d.  at  Alexandria;  but  when  he 
comes  to  deal  with  2   Corinthians  he  falls   back    upon   the 

*  The  New  Testament  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers  (1905)  thinks  the 
case  much  stronger  for  Romans,  but  on  p.  91  points  out  that  in  Polycarp, 
ii.  2,  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that  we  have  a  reminiscence 
of  2  Cor.  iv.   14. 

^  It  should  be  noted  that  Dr.  Stanton  {^Gospels,  i.  p.  152)  inclines  to 
the  view  of  Harnack,  which  would  assign  this  letter  to  the  third  century 
or  the  end  of  the  second,  as  against  Lightfoot's  date  of  about  150  for 
chapters  j.  to  x. 


58      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

argument  that  we  have  the  testimony  of  Basilides  only  at 
second  hand  through  Hippolytus.  But  Van  Manen  fully 
admits  that  if  we  could  trust  Hippolytus  {De  Brieven  aan 
de  Korinthicrs,  pp.  294,  305-6),  2  Corinthians  was  evidently 
known  to  the  Naasenes,  who  refer  to  Paul  by  name,  and  to 
his  words  and  expressions  in  2  Cor.  xii.  4,  and  that  it  was 
known  also  to  Basilides,  who  made  a  reference  to  the  same 
passage. 

To  this  use  by  Apologists  and  by  heretics  alike  we  may 
add  the  recent  testimony  to  its  employment  in  the  famous 
apocryphal  book,  The  Ascension  of  Isaiah.  It  is  noticeable 
that  Dr.  Charles,  who  edits  it,  refers  one  part  of  this  book 
{inz.  iii.  I3<^ — iv.  18)  to  the  close  of  the  first  century  A.D. 
(as  we  have  already  noted),  and  it  is  in  this  section  of  the 
book  iyis.  in  iv.  16)  that  he  finds  an  idea  which  goes  back 
to  2  Cor.  v.  I,  and  from  which  he  concludes  that  the  writer 
was  acquainted  with  the  Epistle  under  discussion  (cf  Ascension 
of  Isaiah^  pp.  34,  1 50).  At  the  same  time  it  must,  I  think, 
be  frankly  admitted  that  Dr.  Charles'  proof  of  the  use  of 
2  Corinthians  is  not  so  strong  as  that  of  the  frequent  re- 
miniscences of  the  language  of  the  Thessalonian  Epistles 
which  we  have  already  noted  in  the  apocryphal  book 
before  us. 

It  is,  of  course,  very  possible  and  very  likely  that  the 
personal  character  of  such  a  document  as  2  Corinthians 
would  prevent  it  from  being  so  widely  known  and  used  as, 
e.g.,  I  Corinthians  and  many  others  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles. 
But  in  addition  to  the  evidences  already  adduced,  its  use 
by  Irenaeus,  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  Tertullian  cannot 
be  questioned,  and  it  found  a  place  in  the  Muratorian 
Fragment  and   in   the  Old   Latin  and   Syriac  versions. 

Certainly  we  cannot  but  wonder  at  the  boldness  of  the 
critics  who  can  ascribe  this  2  Corinthians  to  an  unknown 
writer,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  we  arc  asked  to 
regard   it   as   an   aggregation   of    fragments  which   had   not 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS    AND   ROMANS     59 

originally  the  same  destination.  If  there  is  one  Epistle  more 
than  another,  of  all  those  attributed  to  St.  Paul,  which  reveals 
to  us  the  heart  of  the  man  so  justly  called  by  St.  Chrysostom 
"  the  heart  of  the  world,"  and  yet  the  heart  which  was  never 
careless  of  the  single  life,  the  heart  upon  which  the  name 
of  "  Corinth  "  was  inscribed  (iii.  2,  vii.  3  ;  Plummer,  Corin- 
thians; Smith,  B.D.,  i.  657),  one  would  point  to  this  2  Corin- 
thians, and  it  is  no  wonder  that  Schmiedel  singles  it  out  even 
from  amongst  the  four  Hauptbriefe  as  marked  throughout 
by  traits  so  personal  and  so  full  of  individuality  that  we  are 
justified  here,  at  all  events,  in  drawing  the  conclusion,  often 
so  precarious  elsewhere,  that  such  traits  could  not  have  been 
invented.^ 

Van  Manen  deals  with  all  this  by  presenting  once  more 
his  favourite  picture  of  Paul,  the  simple  tentmaker,  who  had 
given  himself,  in  singleness  and  simplicity  of  heart,  to  the 
service  of  the  gospel  ;  and  he  asks  how  such  a  man  could 
have  written  a  letter  which  claimed  to  be  both  a  guide 
and  a  criticism  of  the  Christian  life,  an  epistle  which  has 
upon  it  more  the  stamp  of  a  book  than  of  a  letter.  This  Paul, 
whom  we  regarded  as  a  man  of  flesh  and  blood  like  ourselves, 
whose  plans  and  purposes  were  intelligible  to  us,  has  become 
an  ideal  figure,  an  overpowering  authority  ;  he  towers,  as  it 
were,  above  every  one  else  ;  on  him  rests  daily  the  care  of  all 
the  Churches  ;  he  has  become  the  invisible,  and  yet  omni- 
present, head  and  leader,  who  directs  his  words  in  appear- 
ance to  one  Church  only,  but  in  reality  to  the  whole  of 
Christendom.^ 

But  again  the  thought  recurs  that  if  the  original  Paul 
was  nothing  but  a  humble  itinerant  preacher  of  the  Gospel, 
there  was  no  possible  reason  why  the  estimation  of  such 
a    figure   should   have   become  so   signally   marked   and   so 

'  Cf.,  in  the  same  effect,  the  recent  remarks  of  Wernle  on  this  same 
Epistle,  Was  haben  zvir  heiite  an  Paulus  ?  pp.  8-17  (1904). 
*  Ve  Brievm  aan  de  Korinthiers,  pp.  91,  126,  z'ji^,  278. 


6o      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

widely  diffused  as  to  have  inspired  some  unknown  writer 
to  transform  it  into  this  wonderful  picture  of  an  omnipresent 
guide  and  arbiter  of  the  destinies  of  the  Churches.  The 
truth  is  that  there  is  no  need  whatever  for  these  two  Pauls  ; 
one  heart  and  one  soul  speaks  through  this  letter  as  through 
the  other  great  Pauline  letters.  These  Epistles,  as  Schmiedel 
insists,  stand  or  fall  together,  and  the  two  addressed  to  the 
Corinthian  Church  come  to  us,  not  from  the  same  circle, 
as  Van  Manen  admits,  but  from  the  same  man.  The  same 
characteristic  combination  of  authority  and  charity,  of  stern- 
ness and  tenderness,  which  marks  the  one,  marks  also  the 
other  (for  the  harmonies  between  2  Corinthians  and  the 
other  writings  of  St.  Paul,  especially  with  i  Corinthians,  see 
Plummer,  u.s.  p.  656)  ;  the  same  hand  which  could  write 
the  "  Psalm  of  Love,"  "  the  grandest  words  in  praise  of  love 
which  ever  came  from  human  pen,"  which  could  wield  a  rod 
or  guide  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  could  also  write,  "  Who 
is  weak,  and  I  am  not  weak  ?  who  is  made  to  stumble,  and 
I  burn  not  ? " 

"  Did  Paul  write  Romans  ?  "  The  question  has  lately 
been  asked  in  a  leading  magazine.  To  all  of  us  it  appears 
surprising,  to  some  of  us  needless  ;  but  the  most  surprising 
part  of  the  matter  is  that  a  negative  answer  is  given  to 
this  surprising  question.  The  article  is  written  by  the 
American  follower  of  the  most  advanced  Dutch  critics.  It 
might  be  sufficient  to  say  that  the  next  number  of  the  same 
magazine  contains  an  article  by  the  German,  Dr.  Schmiedel, 
who  returns  an  affirmative  answer  to  the  same  question, 
and  expresses  his  belief,  with  critics  of  Germany,  France, 
England,  and  America,  that  St.  Paul  was  the  undoubted 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the   Romans.^ 

But  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Encycl.  Bibl.,  just  published, 
again    raises    the    whole    dispute,    and    Van    Manen    again 
answers  the  question   before  us  in    the   negative. 
'  Hibberi  Journal,  January  and  April,  1903. 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS   AND   ROMANS     6i 

It  is  nothing  to  these  negative  critics  that  for  eighteen 
centuries  no  voice  was  raised  to  dispute  the  authenticity 
of  this  Epistle  (when  it  suits  them  these  critics  pay  a 
passing  deference  to  tradition ;  when  it  does  not,  they 
ignore  it)  ;  it  is  nothing  to  them  that  their  views  are  not 
merely  condemned,  but  ignored,  not  only  by  great  con- 
servative writers,  but  by  writers  who  might  be  expected 
from  their  own  advanced  views  to  be  more  or  less  in 
sympathy  with  any  extravagances  of  criticism  ;  it  is  nothing 
to  them  that  they  are  obliged  to  pin  their  faith — a  very 
dogmatic  faith — not  only  to  a  series  of  fragmentary  docu- 
ments, but  also  to  a  series  of  imaginary  writers,  whose 
labours  are  placed  here  or  there  as  occasion  requires,  and 
who  resemble  Paul  in  one  particular,  but  apparently  in 
no  other,  viz.  that  they  have  no  certain  dwelling-place. 

Thus  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  4142,  we  read,  "The  home 
of  the  author  we  can  place  equally  well  in  the  West  or  in 
the  East ;  in  the  East  in  Antioch,  or  elsewhere  in  Syria, 
because  PauHnism  probably  had  its  origin  there.  .  .  .  The 
possibility  is  not  excluded  that  the  main  portions  of  the 
letter,  or,  if  you  will,  of  a  letter  to  the  Romans,  were  written 
in  the  East,  and  that  the  last  touches  were  put  to  it  in 
Rome  or  elsewhere  in  the  West." 

It  is,  again,  nothing  to  these  critics  that  they  are  obliged 
to  depend  upon  the  most  arbitrary  dates,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Roman  Epistle,  and  even  upon  the  blank  denial  of 
books  admitted  by  the  greatest  scholars  after  the  closest 
examination  to  be  the  works  of  those  whose  names  they 
bear  ;  it  is  nothing  that  St.  Clement's  Epistle  is  refused 
to  St.  Clement,  or  that  the  letters  of  St.  Ignatius  are  ruled 
out  of  court.  A  most  glaring  instance  of  this  sort  of 
thing  occurs  in  the  treatment  of  the  Epistle  before  us. 
We  are  assured  that  no  use  whatever  is  made  of  Romans 
down  to  and  including  the  extant  writings  of  Justin  Martyr. 
It   should   be  noted,  in    passing,  that   this   very   reckless 


62       TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

assertion  is  made  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  St.  Clement 
of  Rome,  in  St.  Polycarp,  in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  echoes 
of  Romans  may  be  found  in  the  judgment  of  scholars 
who  stand  confessedly  in  the  front  rank  both  in  Germany 
and  England.  And  how  carefully  conservative  critics  avoid 
straining  these  references  in  their  own  favour  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  B.  Weiss,  in  the  late  edition 
of  his  Einleitimg  in  das  N.T.,  pp.  35,  ■^y,  refuses  to  retain 
the  possible  reference  to  Romans  in  St.  Ignatius,  while  he 
retains  those  from  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas.^ 

One  quotation  from  St.  Clement  is  so  evident  that  one 
would  have  thought  that  it  was  impossible  to  ignore  its 
force  {cf.  Rom.  i.  32  and  Clem.,  Cor.,  xxxv.  6).  But  our 
critics  are  quite  equal  to  the  occasion.  St.  Clement  is 
placed  anywhere  between  96-135,  and  in  this  most  remark- 
able parallel  (one  out  of  many)  which  he  affords  to  the 
language  of  Romans,  we  are  assured  that  he  and  "  Paul  " 
are  both  quoting  from  some  such  catalogue  of  sins  as  is 
found  in  the  Didache,  v.  1-2,  a  catalogue  of  a  kind  common 
enough  amongst  the  Jews. 

But  not  one  word   is  said  of  the  fact  that  it  is  not  only 

in  the  catalogue  of  sins,  but  in  the  words  which  follow  the 

catalogue,  that  the  coincidence  is  so  exact  in  this  parallel 

between    Clement's  letter  and  the   Epistle  to  the   Romans. 

Thus,  after  each  document  has  spoken  of  the  judgment  of 

God   which   comes    upon    those   who    do    such    things,    St. 

Clement  adds,  "  And  not  only  they  that  do  them,  but  they 

also  that  consent  unto  them."      In  Romans  we  read  of  those 

who  "  not  only   do   the  same,  but  also  consent  with  them 

that  do  them."     We  can  hardly  doubt  the  reminiscence  by 

St.  Clement,  especially  as  the  Greek  verb  for  "  consent "  is 

the  same  as  in   Romans. 

'  On  the  probable  use  of  Romaris  by  Barnabas,  see  New  Testa- 
metit  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  p.  4  ;  and  cf.  Barnabas,  xiii.  2-3. 
Dr.  Weiss  retains  Barnabas,  xvii.  7,  Rom.  iv.  11  and  ix.  6,  with 
reference  to  the  same  passage  in  Romans. 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS   AND   ROMANS     63 

Added  to  this  there  are  no  less  than  half-a-dozen  other 

passages   in   which  quotations  or  reminiscences  of  Romans 

may  be  traced  in  the  same  Epistle  of  St.  Clement/ 

Professor    Smith   is   anxious   enough    to    refer   to   Justin 

Martyr  ;  but  he  has  not  a  word  to  say  about  another,  and 

probably  an  earlier  apologist,  Aristides,  whose   apology   is 

admitted  to  be  genuine  by  Van   Manen,  and   in  whom  we 

find    frequent    references    to    Romans,   as    the    same    critic 

allows. 

Still   more  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  no  notice  whatever 

is   taken    in    the   negative  article   before   us   of  the  earliest 

evidence  to  the  Roman  Epistle  which  may  be  gathered  from 

the  heretical  writings  of  the  Naasenes,  of  the  Valentinians, 

and  above  all  of  Basilides,  who  is  not  even   mentioned  from 

one  end  of  the  article  to  the  other.     And  yet  both  Steck 

and    Van    Manen    place    him    at    125-30,    that    is    to    say, 

within  some  five  years  at  the  outside  from  the  date  at  which 

they  suppose  Romans  to  have  been  written  ! 

The  evidence  of  Basilides  is  evidently  considered  of  the 

greatest  moment  by  Van  Manen,  and  we  have  already  seen 

how  he  is  apparently  puzzled  to  know  how  to  deal  with  it. 

But  how,  above  all,  are  we  asked  to  deal  with  Marcion, 

who,  according  to  Van    Manen,   Encycl.  BibL,   iv.   4128,  at 

140  A.D.,  is  the  first  to  recognise  the  Romans  as  an  integral 

part    of    the    works    of    the    authoritative    Apostle    Paul  ? 

Writing  about  140,  the  heretic  Marcion  has  no  hesitation  in 

placing  Romans  amongst  his  ten   Epistles,  assigning  it  by 

name  to  Paul. 

But,  again,  the  Dutch  and  the  Swiss  professors  are  equal 

to  the  occasion.      Marcion  is  not  quoting   from   St.   Paul's 

Epistle  as  it  exists  for  us  in  our  canon  to-day.      Tertullian 

and    Irenaeus,   indeed,   accuse    Marcion    of   expurgating    or 

^  See,  e.g.,  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans,  p.  Ixxx.  On  the  breaking 
up  of  the  Epistle  by  Spitta,  who,  however,  allows  that  it  is  still  the  work 
of  St.  Paul,  see  Jacquier,  Histoire  des  Livres  du  N.T.,  p.  266  (1903), 
and  Hibbert  Journal,  January,  1903,  p.  414. 


64      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

mutilating  Church  writings  ;  it  seems  beyond  all  doubt  that 
he  did  so  in  dealing  with  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke,  and  there 
is  every  reason  that  he  acted  so  with  regard  to  the  Galatian 
Epistle  ;  but  all  this  is  to  go  for  nothing.  We  are  asked  to 
believe  that  the  Catholic  writers  mutilated  and  expurgated  ; 
not  Marcion. 

But  let  us  give  the  matter  another  moment's  attention. 
Marcion  finds  at  Rome,  about  B.C.  140,  ten  Epistles  of  Paul. 
He  regards  them  as  such,  because  they  appear  to  him  to 
breathe  the  spirit  of  Paul,  and  were  generally  recognised 
by  the  Church.  These  are  the  two  grounds  upon  which 
Marcion  admits  these  Epistles  into  his  canon.  One  is  their 
reception  by  the  Church.  But  if  this  recognition  was  public 
and  certain  at  140,  it  must  have  been  accorded  before  that 
date,  and  the  letters  must  thus  be  carried  back  considerably 
earlier.  And  yet  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  Romans  in  its 
present  form  dates  about  120  A.D.  (so  Van  Manen  in  his 
latest  view,  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  4139).  But  then  this  letter, 
derived  from  some  unknown  writer  or  writers,  but  compiled 
in  its  present  form  by  some  one  who  posed  as  "  Paul,"  is 
accepted  some  twenty  years  later  not  only  by  the  Church, 
but  by  those  who  opposed  her  teaching,  as  an  authoritative 
work  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

But  a  second  difficulty  arises.  How  did  Marcion  know 
that  these  letters  which  he  accepted  breathed  the  spirit  of 
Paul  ?  No  letters  of  the  real  Paul,  the  poor  travelling 
missionary,  are  in  existence  ;  the  Acts  are  our  only  source 
of  information  touching  either  the  thoughts  or  style  of  the 
Apostle,  and  the  Acts,  we  are  assured,  in  no  measure  and  in 
no  part  reflects  the  Roman  Epistle  and  its  language.  How, 
then,  did  Marcion  know  the  spirit  of  Paul  ? 

One  further  point  may  be  noticed.  The  opponents  of 
the  Epistle  have  often  laid  great  stress  upon  the  fact  that 
the  words  "  in  Rome  "  and  "to  those  in  Rome,"  in  i.  7,  15, 
are     not     found     in    some    MSS.      But    in    his    article    on 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS   AND   ROMANS     65 

"  Romans,"  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.,  Van  Manen  twice  tells  us 
that  even  if  the  words  do  not  belong  to  the  original  text, 
their  meaning  is  assured  by  the  superscription  "  to  Romans  " 
and  by  the  unvarying  tradition  as  to  the  destination  of  the 
"  Epistle."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  omission  of  the  words 
can  be  easily  explained  :  it  is  quite  possible,  for  instance,  that 
the  letter  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  circular  letter,  like  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  (see  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans, 
p.  Ixxxix.,  and  Gifford,  Romans,  p.  22).  But  if  this  was  not  the 
case,  the  omission  in  question  would  be  no  proof  that  the 
Epistle  was  not  written  by  St.  Paul.  Harnack  frankly 
admits  the  omission  of  the  words  in  Rom.  i.  7  ;  but  yet 
he  is  a  staunch  supporter  of  the  Pauline  authorship.^ 

Let  us  consider,  in  conclusion,  what  this  group  of  Epistles 
may  tell  us  as  to  St.  Paul's  conception  of  Christ.  He  is 
still  "  the  Lord,"  in  the  same  sense  as  in  the  earlier  letters 
(cf  Rom.  x.  9 ;  I  Cor.  xii.  3)  ;  and  the  Old  Testament 
prophecies  relating  to  Jehovah  are  still  referred  to,  and 
fulfilled  in.  Him.  Still,  the  Christian  is  "in  Christ,"  "in  the 
Lord  "  ;  he  is  alive  unto  God  "  in  Christ  Jesus  "  ;  redemption, 
life,  the  love  of  God,  are  "  in  Christ  Jesus."  To  be  "  in 
Christ "  expressed  what  was  from  the  beginning  involved  in 
the  acceptance  of  the  new  creed  (Rom.  xvi.  7  ;  2  Cor. 
xii.  2).  To  be  "  in  Christ  "  expressed  the  deepest  mystical 
union  between  the  Christian  and  his  Lord,  which  neither 
time  nor  place  could  weaken  or  sever.  Some  of  us,  perhaps, 
have  been  reading  the  recently  published  biography  of  the 
great  and  good  Bishop  of  Durham,  to  whom  every  New 
Testament  student  owes  such  an  incalculable  debt.  If  so, 
we  shall  recall  the  stress  which  he  so  constantly  lays  upon 
this  thought  of  what  constitutes  the  Christian  life  and 
strength,  and  how  the  biography  closes  with  the  sure  and 
certain  hope  that  "  he  is,' '  as  he  was,  "  in  Christ." 

^  In  his  recent  work  on  St.  Paul,  Clemen  makes  very  light  of  this 
supposed  objection  {Paulus,  i.  p.  93). 

5 


66      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

But  other  and  further  testimony  is  borne  to  Him  whose 
name  the  Christian  Church  was  wont  to  invoke  even  as 
Israel  of  old  called  upon  the  Lord  in  prayer  (i  Cor.  i.  2). 
He  is  still  the  same  Jesus  who  had  lived  on  earth  ;  He  is 
still  the  same  Christ  to  whom  the  prophets  had  pointed 
(Peine,  Jesiis  Christus  imd  Paiilus,  p.  44)  ;  but  His  life 
extends  back  far  beyond  the  creation  of  the  world,  before 
the  mountains  were  brought  forth,  or  ever  the  earth  and  the 
world  were  made. 

This  testimony  to  the  pre-existence  of  our  Lord  stands 
out  nowhere  perhaps  more  clearly  than  in  i  Cor.  viii.  6. 
Here  we  find  words  which  anticipate  alike  what  St.  Paul 
says  in  his  later  Epistles  (cf  Col.  i.  17  ;  Eph.  i.  23),  and 
what  the  Church  to-day  proclaims  throughout  the  world  : 
"  To  us  there  is  one  God  the  Father,  of  whom  are  all  things, 
and  we  unto  Him  ;  and  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  through  Him 
are  all  things,  and  we  through  Him." 

The  attempt  to  explain  away  the  force  of  the  words,  as, 
e.g.,  by  suggesting  that  Paul  is  thinking  here,  as  elsewhere, 
of  a  spiritual  creation,  by  no  means  commands  assent,  even 
in  quarters  in  which  we  might  perhaps  expect  it.  Pfleiderer 
in  the  new  edition  of  his  UrcJiristentum,  i.  228,  has  no  doubt 
that  the  words  point  to  a  pre-existence  of  the  Christ-Spirit, 
and  to  His  presence  at,  and  His  agency  in,  the  creation  of 
the  world.  But  he  maintains,  as  in  an  earlier  edition,  that 
the  thought  might  well  have  found  a  home  in  the  Christology 
of  Paul,  from  the  manner  in  which  Wisdom  was  personified 
by  the  Jews,  and  had  a  share  as  an  agent  in  the  creation 
of  the  world. 

But  in  Jewish  theology  the  Messiah  was  always  distin- 
guished from  the  Memra  and  from  Wisdom,  and  very  high 
authority  makes  it  very  doubtful  as  to  how  far  it  can 
be  maintained  that  earlier  Rabbinism  at  any  rate  attri- 
butes a  real  pre-existence  to  the  Messiah  (Weber,  Judische 
Theologie,  p.   354;   Dalman,    Words  of  Jestis,  p.   301,  E.T.  ; 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS    AND   ROMANS     6j 

Art.  "  Messias,"  new  edition  of  Herzog,  Heft  119,  p.  736  ; 
see  also  Harnack,  History  of  Dogma,  i.  p.  102,  E.T.). 
But  that  St.  Paul  did  attribute  a  pre-existence  in  such 
passages  as  the  present,  and  so,  too,  in  2  Cor.  viii.  9,  Pfleiderer 
frankly  admits  ;  indeed,  in  the  latter  passage,  as  in  Phil.  ii.  5, 
the  Apostle  speaks  of  a  moral  act  of  Christ  in  becoming 
man  (Pfleiderer,  us.  p.  228).  At  the  same  time  we  must 
decline  to  consider  that  the  Apostle's  thought  is  fully 
explained  when  Pfleiderer  maintains  that  the  riches  which 
Christ  left  were  the  glory  which  He  enjoyed  as  the  image 
and  reflection  of  God,  or  that  as  a  spiritual  metaphysical 
Being  He  was  sent  into  the  world  merely  to  become  the 
Second  Adam  or  the  First-born  among  many  brethren,  or 
that  the  Apostle  conceives  of  Him  as  taking  up  in  His 
pre-existent  state  an  intermediary  position  between  God 
and  man,  just  as  man  stands  as  intermediary  between 
Christ  and  woman    (i    Cor.   xi.   3). 

But,  further,  in  the  remarkable  passage  (i  Cor.  x.  4),  "  For 
they  drank  of  that  spiritual  Rock  that  followed  them, 
and  that  Rock  was  Christ,"  Pfleiderer  does  not  hesitate 
to  find  another  proof  of  St.  Paul's  reference  to  the  pre- 
existence  of  Christ  {u.s.  p.  228).  No  doubt  parallels  may 
be  quoted  to  this  personification  of  the  Rock  from  con- 
temporary Jewish  thought,  as,  e.g.,  the  identification  of  the 
Rock  by  Philo  with  the  Wisdom  of  God,  although  there 
does  not  seem  to  be  any  evidence  for  the  identification 
of  the  Rock  with  the  Messiah  at  a  date  anterior  to  a 
contemporary  with  St.  Paul  (Thackeray,  Relation  of  St. 
Paul  to  Contemporary  fewish  Thought,  pp.  211,  235). 
Certainly  such  a  passage  could  not  carry  decisive  weight 
as  a  proof-text,  if  taken  by  itself,  owing  to  its  allegorical 
form.  But  it  cannot  be  taken  by  itself,  as  we  have  seen  ; 
and,  in  conjunction  with  other  passages,  it  furnishes  us 
with  another  instance  of  what  was  at  all  events  St.  Paul's 
own     belief,    an    instance    in    which    he    again    shows    not 


68      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

simply   a   dependence  upon,  but    also  an   independence   of, 
Jewish  thought. 

To  the  important  bearing  of  such  words  upon  the  central 
Christian  doctrine  a  remarkable  testimony  is  furnished  from 
the  recent  utterances  of  one  of  the  writers  in  Contentio 
Veri talis  (p.  102)  :  "  The  profound  words  of  St.  Paul  with 
reference  to  an  incident  in  Old  Testament  history,  '  That 
Rock  was  Christ,'  should  never  be  forgotten  if  we  wish  to 
understand  the  Apostle's  teaching  on  the  incarnation." 
Moreover,  it  is  noticeable  that  Pfleiderer  does  not  hesitate  to 
combine  such  passages  as  Gal.  iv.  4  ;  Rom.  viii.  3,  us. 
p.  227,  which  speak  of  the  Son  of  God  as  sent  in  the  like- 
ness of  flesh  or  as  born  of  a  woman,  "  since  he  who  is  thus 
to  be  sent  must  of  necessity  have  existed  already  in  another 
form  of  existence."  It  was  a  true  instinct  which  prompted 
Dr.  Martineau  to  say  of  these  texts  in  Galatians  and  Romans, 
"  Could  the  birthday  of  a  human  being  be  announced  in 
such  terms  as  these  ?  "  But  whilst  Christ  came  to  be  the 
First-born  among  many  brethren,  a  title  upon  which  Pflei- 
derer lays  the  greatest  stress,  we  must  remember  that  He  is 
described  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  as  God's  "  own 
Son  "  (cf  viii.  32)  ;  and  even  if  it  be  not  wise  to  press  the 
resemblance  in  every  detail,  yet  it  still  remains  true  that  a 
great  similarity  may  be  found  here  and  elsewhere  in  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul  between  his  phraseology  and  that  of  St. 
John  (see  recently  Y^m^,  Jesus  Christus  und  Paidus,  p.  285). 

It  is,  moreover,  in  the  light  of  such  passages  as  Rom.  viii. 
3,  32,  that  the  difficult  verses,  Rom.  i.  3,  4,  should  be  read. 
Our  Lord  is  there  spoken  of  as  declared  or  determined  to 
be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according  to  the  spirit  of 
holiness,  by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  But  this  cannot 
mean  that  our  Lord  became  the  Son  of  God  by  His  resur- 
rection (this  would  be  to  contradict  St.  Paul's  meaning  in 
other  passages).  The  Apostle  is  speaking  of  the  Gospel  of 
God,  the  Gospel  of  His  Son  ;  and  this  Son   is  described   as 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS    AND   ROMANS     69 

born  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the  flesh,  the 
word  employed  usually  marking  transition  from  one  state  of 
being  to  another.  But  it  was  not  His  manifestation  on 
earth,  but  His  resurrection,  which  declared  Him  to  be, 
marked  Him  out  as,  the  Son  of  God  with  power.  The 
resurrection  was  the  proof  seen  and  read  of  all  men,  that 
death  had  no  dominion  over  Him,  and  that  the  claims 
which  He  had  made  were  exceeding  righteous  and  true.^ 
But  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  as  well  as  the  Gospel  of  St.  John, 
contain  language  which  testifies  to  a  reciprocal  and  unique 
relationship  between  the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  and  even  if 
we  admit  that  our  Lord  was  never  called  Son  of  God  by 
any  of  His  contemporaries,  and  that  as  the  title  was  no 
ordinary  designation  of  the  Messiah  nothing  else  could  be 
expected  (Dalman,  Words  of  Jesus,  p.  275)  ;  even  if 
we  further  admit  that  the  disciples  used  the  expression 
Son  of  God  as  Hellenists,  but  Jesus  in  a  Semitic 
manner  (Dalman,  u.s.  p.  289),  yet  even  then  St.  Paul's 
frequent  use  of  the  term  becomes  not  the  less,  but  all  the 
more,  remarkable,  and  we  cannot  fairly  escape  (in  spite  of 
the  recent  strictures  of  Ericycl.  Bibl.,  iv..  Art.  "  Son  of 
God ")  the  force  of  such  passages  as  Matt.  xi.  27,  Luke 
X.  22  :  "  All  things  have  been  delivered  unto  Me  of  My 
Father,  and  none  knoweth  the  Son  save  the  Father,  neither 
doth  any  know  the  Father  save  the  Son  ;  and  He  to 
whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him." 

With  regard  to  the  two  passages  just  cited  from  the 
Synoptists,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  Dalman  admits  both  of 
them  as  the  words  of  Jesus,  and  that  he  also  admits  that 
although  the  relationship  between  Father  and  Son  is 
figurative,  yet  nowhere  does  Jesus  designate  Himself  as  the 
Son  of  God  in  a  manner  which  could  be  regarded  as  merely 

^  See  Chase,  Credibility  of  Acts,  p.  289 ;  Sanday  and  Headlam, 
Romans,  in  loco ;  also  Gifford.  See  also  Lechler,  Das  apostolische 
Zeitalter,  pp.  314,  351  ;  Feine,  yiej-z^j-  Christies  und  Paulus,  p.  43. 


70      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

expressing  a  religious  or  ethical  relationship  with  God  which 
other  men  also  possess,  or  could  possess  {u.s.  pp.  283,  287). 

But  when  we  come  to  deal  with  such  passages  as  Matt, 
xxiv.  36,  Mark  xiii.  32,  in  which  the  angels  and  "  the  Son  " 
are  represented  as  not  knowing  something  which  the  Father 
knows  {11.S.  p.  287),  here  we  are  told  that  as  no  mutual 
comparison  between  Father  and  Son  is  expressed,  the 
terminology  and  the  text  are  influenced  by  the  language  of 
the  early  Church,  and  that  originally  the  words  stood  simply 
"  not  even  the  angels,"  the  words  "  neither  the  Son,  but  the 
Father  only  "  being  omitted.  But  in  the  first  place  it  has 
been  rightly  remarked  that  the  words  "  not  even  the  Son  " 
are  too  unlikely  an  addition  not  to  be  original,^  and  in  the 
second  place  we  may  learn  much  from  a  due  consideration 
of  St.  Paul's  statements.  From  the  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  e.g.^  it  would  seem  that  such  language — language 
in  which  the  expressions  "  the  Father,"  "  the  Son,"  are 
employed  just  as  absolutely  as  in  St.  Mark — was  very  early 
in  use  in  the  Church.  In  i  Cor.  xv.  28  St.  Paul  employs 
the  expression  "  the  Son  "  absolutely,  and  in  the  immediate 
context  he  had  spoken  of  "  the  P'ather,"  and  it  is  no  wonder 
that  recent  writers  have  seen  a  reference  in  such  words  to 
the  use  of  the  same  terms  by  our  Lord  Himself  in  Matt, 
xi.  27,  or  even  more  probably,  as  some  think,  in  Mark  xiii. 
32^  {Y€vci&,  Jesus  Ckristus  und  Pmilus,  pp.  43,  56,  156). 

"  So  immediately  near  to  God  has  Judaism  not  placed 
Christ,  as  Paul  places  Him,"  writes  Feine  {it.s.  p.  56).  And 
if  we  ask  why,  we  have  the  best  answer  in  the  belief  that 
St.  Paul  knew  in  what  relationship  to  God  Christ  had  placed 
Himself  in  His  own  accepted  words. 

For  if  Schmiedel,  in  his  article  on  "  The  Gospels,"  in  the 
Encycl.    Bibl.,  still    leaves    us    nine    sayings    as    foundation 

'   Bishop  of  Exeter,  Rcgnum  Dei,  p.  71. 

''  "  But  of  that  day  or  that  hour  knoweth  no  one,  not  even  the  angels 
in  heaven  ;  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father." 


EPISTLES   TO   CORINTHIANS   AND   ROMANS    yt 

pillars  for  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  if  amongst  those  sayings  we 
find  Mark  xiii.  32,  in  spite  of  its  acknowledged  difficulties 
and  its  various  readings,  it  would  seem  as  if  here,  at  all  events, 
we  were  in  possession  of  words  of  our  Lord  of  which  even 
the  most  destructive  criticism  hesitates  to  deprive  us. 

Moreover,  we  may  further  note  that  in  the  Epistles  before 
us  Van  Manen,  and  those  whom  he  represents,  assign  the 
highest  Christological  meaning  to  these  passages  in  the 
Roman  and  Corinthian  letters  with  which  we  have  been 
dealing  ;  and  although,  of  course,  they  do  this  to  show  how 
late  was  the  date  at  which  these  Epistles  must  have  been 
written,  yet,  at  all  events,  they  admit  that  the  interpretation 
put  upon  the  passages  by  the  Church  is  correct,  and 
that  that  interpretation  does  not  sin  against  grammar  or 
meaning. 

Once  more  :  in  one  of  these  Epistles  (2  Corinthians)  we 
have  the  phrase  in  which  Harnack,  in  his  recent  criticism 
of  the  German  Emperor's  utterances,  holds  that  all  else  is 
contained,  and  that  we  cannot  go  beyond  it :  "  God  was  in 
Christ"  (cf  2  Cor.  v.  21). 

What  do  such  words  mean,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  in  the 
New  Testament  itself?  They  surely  do  not  mean  that  God 
was  in  Christ,  as  we  might  say  that  God  was  in  any  man  ; 
this  would  be  at  variance  with  St.  Paul's  teaching  elsewhere, 
and  at  variance,  as  Harnack  himself  allows,  with  our  Lord's 
own  language.  'In  this  recent  letter  he  says,  "  Every 
estimate  of  Christ  which  effaces  the  distinction  between  Him 
and  other  masters  the  Christian  community  must  reject." 
"  He  Himself,  His  disciples,  and  the  history  of  the  world 
have  spoken  so  plainly  on  this  matter,  that  there  ought  to 
be  no  possibility  of  doubt."  Nor  can  such  words  mean  that 
the  expression  "  the  Gospel  "  is  to  be  used  of  anything  less 
than  a  message  of  forgiveness  and  redemption,  unless  we 
isolate  the  phrase  entirely  from  its  context.  Certainly 
St.  Paul  is  credited  with  being  the  primary  source  of  New 


72      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Testament  Christology  and  of  the  formulation  of  the 
doctrine  of  an  atonement  ;  but  Harnack  again  distinctly 
allows  that,  with  regard  to  the  significance  of  Christ's  death 
and  resurrection,  Paul  "  stood  exactly  on  the  same  ground 
as  the  primitive  community,"  and  from  the  first  Paul  had 
received  as  part  of  the  Gospel  which  he  preached  that 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  (i  Cor.  xv.  3).^ 

St.  Paul,  then,  in  such  an  utterance  as  that  in  2  Cor.  v.  21, 
had  not  departed  from  the  original  simplicity  of  the  Gospel  ; 
and  that  Gospel  was  not  merely  an  exhortation  to  mutual 
love  and  good  fellowship,  but  a  message  of  divine  reconcilia- 
tion and  forgiveness.  And  St.  Paul  could  not  put  "  the 
word  of  reconciliation  "  in  the  background,  unless  not  only 
he,  but  those  who  stood  closer  still  to  the  Lord  in  His 
earthly  life,  had  grievously  misunderstood  one  side  at  least 
of  their  Master's  message  and  of  their  Master's  work. 

■  See  also  Die  Mission  und  Ausbreitung des  Christentums ,  p.  65. 


LECTURE    V 
THE  EPISTLES  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPRISONMENT 

THE  four  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  with  which  this  and  the 
next  Lecture  are  concerned — Philemon,  Colossians, 
Ephesians,  Philippians — are  classed  together  as  the  Epistles 
of  the  First  Captivity  :  in  each  of  them  the  Apostle  makes 
mention  of  his  bonds. 

A  division  of  opinion  has  prevailed  as  to  where  three 
at  all  events  of  the  Epistles  mentioned  were  composed, 
whether  at  Caesarea  or  Rome ;  but  on  the  whole  it  is  best 
to  follow  the  lines  of  tradition,  and  to  regard  Rome  as  the 
place  of  writing,  ^  as  Rome  certainly  was  the  birthplace  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians.^ 

In  Philippians  we  possess  a  document  which  is  almost 
universally  recognised  as  the  work  of  St.  Paul,  and  which 
might  be  classed  with  the  four  Hanptbriefe  and  with 
I   Thessalonians. 

To  these  six  Epistles  may  fairly  be  added  the  little  note 
to  Philemon.  It  is  not  only  that  it  is  found  in  Marcion's 
canon  and  in  the  Muratorian  canon  ;  it  is  not  only  that 
coincidences  with  its  language  may  be  traced  in  the  early 

'  Certainly  it  was  far  more  probable  that  a  runaway  slave  like 
Onesimus  would  make  for  Rome  to  gain  the  best  hiding-place. 

^  Dr.  Moffatt  well  conjectures  that  if  Colossians  and  Ephesians  had 
been  written  at  Cassarea,  some  mention  of  Paul's  friend  Philip  (Acts 
xxi.  8-14)  would  have  occurred  in  the  list  of  his  helpers  and  co-members. 
See  further  on  the  theory  that  they  were  written  at  Caesarea,  Bacon, 
Introd.,  pp.  55,  106,  and  Haupt-Meyer  (1902),  who  defends  Caesarea  as 
the  place  of  writing. 

73 


74      TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

literature  of  the  Church  (although  the  frequency  of  these 
could  not  be  expected  when  we  bear  in  mind  the  purely- 
personal  tone  and  object  of  the  letter) ;  but  it  is  the  conviction 
almost  universally  expressed  by  critics  of  all  schools  of  thought 
that  no  one  but  St.  Paul  could  have  composed  "  this  little 
masterpiece."  "  They  are  only  some  familiar  lines,"  writes 
Sabatier  in  describing  the  contents  of  Philemon,  "  but  so  full 
of  grace,  of  wit,  of  real  and  trustful  affection,  that  this  short 
epistle  glitters  like  a  pearl  of  the  most  exquisite  fineness  in 
the  rich  treasure  of  the  New  Testament.  Never  has  the 
precept  of  St.  Paul,  which  he  gave  at  the  close  of  his  letter 
to  the  Colossians,  been  better  realised  :  '  Let  your  speech 
be  always  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt,  that  ye  may  know 
how  ye  ought  to  answer  each  one ' "  {LApotre  Paul,  p.  234, 
3rd  edit). 

It  is  true  that  voices  have  been  raised  even  in  modern 
days  against  this  simple  letter,  in  spite  of  the  rebuke  to  such 
utterances  by  a  great  scholar  like  Reuss  :  "  The  fact  that 
criticism  has  presumed  to  call  in  question  the  genuineness 
of  these  harmless  lines  only  jshows  that  itself  is  not  the 
genuine  thing  "  {Geschichte  der  N.T.,  p.  120,  6th  edit). 

Thus  we  have  been  told  that  it  is  transparently  an 
allegory,  and  that  this  is  shown  by  the  very  meaning  of  the 
name  Onesimus.  But  if  so,  it  is  surely  probable  that  the 
various  points  in  the  allegory  would  have  been  in  some 
sort  elaborated,  and  that  the  issue  of  the  appeal  of  the 
Apostle  would  have  been  made  much  more  definite  by 
any  one  who  concocted  the  letter  to  solve  the  difficulties  of 
the  relationship  between  master  and  slave,  or  to  raise  "  more 
vividly,"  as  Steck  urged,  the  question  of  the  Apostle's 
attitude  towards  the  slavery  question.  Whereas,  as  the 
letter  stands,  we  are  left  to  infer  that  Onesimus  was  liberated  ; 
we  are  not  told  so,  and  the  letter  carries  us  not  a  single 
step  further  than  i  Cor.  vii.  21  :  'Wast  thou  called,  being  a 
bondservant  ?      Care  not   for  it  ;    but  if  thou  canst  become 


EPISTLES   OF  THE   FIRST   IMPRISONMENT     75 

free,  use  it  rather.'  The  objections  raised  in  the  early  days 
of  the  Church  arose  undoubtedly  from  the  fact  that  the 
occasion  seemed  too  trifling  for  a  letter  from  the  great 
Apostle.  But  the  Epistle  has  survived  these  short-sighted 
views  as  to  what  was  or  was  not  fitting  for  St,  Paul's  "  heart 
of  the  world,"  and  a  truer  judgment  has  long  corrected  such 
partial  criticism. 

Steele,  indeed,  in  modern  days,  has  found  a  likeness  to 
our  Epistle  in  the  well-known  letter  of  the  younger  Pliny 
{Epist.,  ix.  21).  Pliny's  letter  was  written  to  a  friend 
Sabinianus,  to  ask  forgiveness  for  a  young  freedman,  and 
on  the  face  of  it  there  is  nothing  strange  in  the  fact  that 
a  letter  written  for  such  a  purpose  should  present,  as  Grotius 
long  ago  pointed  out,  some  kind  of  parallel  in  expressions  to 
the  letter  of  St.  Paul.  But  this  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  maintaining,  as  Steck  does,  that  the  letter  to  Philemon 
is  simply  an  imitation  of  Pliny's  letter,  and  that  it  dates 
somewhere  about    125-30  A.D. 

And  how  wide,  even  in  these  two  letters,  is  the  chasm 
which  separates  the  Christian  Socialism  of  those  early  days 
from  the  cultured  society  of  Rome  under  the  Empire  ! 
Pliny  requests  that  the  young  freedman  may  not  be 
punished  for  his  offence  by  torture  ;  Paul  is  confident  that 
Onesimus  will  be  received  no  longer  as  a  slave,  but  as  a 
brother  beloved.^  Moreover,  it  seems  too  absurd  to  main- 
tain that  Paul's  Epistle  is  merely  an  imitation  of  Pliny, 
written  at  the  date  mentioned  above,  when  Steck  himself 
admits  that  the  letter  attributed  to  Paul  was  known  to 
Marcion,  who  admitted  it  unchanged  into  his  canon.  We 
may,  too,  well  ask  how  an  Epistle  composed  so  late,  con- 
cocted by  some  unknown  writer  and  in  some  unknown 
place,  after  a  perusal  of  the  letters  so  often  associated  with 

1  See  Zahn,  Einlettzmg,  i.  324;  Moffatt,  Historical  N.2\,  p.  132; 
Lightfoot,  Colossians;  and,  most  important,  Meyer-Haupt,  pp.  8-9 
(1902). 


^6      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

it,  Colossians  and  Ephesians,  and  perhaps  with  a  use  of  the 
letter  of  Pliny,  could  gain  such  a  place  in  the  estimation 
of  the  Church  as  to  be  spoken  of  by  St.  Jerome  as  acknow- 
ledged to  be  Paul's  throughout  the  Christian  world. 

Amongst  the  objections  raised  by  Van  Manen,  stress  is 
laid  upon  the  fact  that  we  know  nothing  elsewhere  of 
Philemon,  Apphia,  and  Archippus.  But  to  say  nothing 
of  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  must  have  made  many  friends  in 
his  long  life  and  during  his  widely  extended  labours,  of 
whom,  as  in  Philemon's  case,  we  learn  from  him  only  the 
name,  it  may  be  noted  that  whilst  this  trivial  objection  is 
pressed,  nothing  is  said  of  the  remarkable  clearness  with 
which  modern  criticism  has  brought  out  the  Phrygian  origin 
of  the  name  Apphia,  which  is  frequently  found  in  Phrygian 
inscriptions,  and  nothing  is  said  of  the  fact  that  critics  of 
widely  differing  schools  have  agreed  in  recognising  the 
Archippus  of  verse  2  in  the  Archippus  of  Col.  iv.  17.  "  It  is 
to-day  quite  generally  accepted,"  writes  B.  Weiss  {^Present 
Status  of  the  Inquiry  of  the  Genuineness  of  the  Pauline 
Epistles,  p.  51),  "that  Baur's  maintenance  of  the  spurious- 
ness  of  this  letter  to  Philemon  was  one  of  his  worst  blunders. 
That  he  should  have  called  it  the  embryo  of  a  Christian 
novel  sounds  like  a  jest,  not  a  scientific  argument."  It  may 
be  a  question  whether  more  recent  critics  than  Baur  have 
not  made  worse  blunders  ;  but  it  is,  at  all  events,  equally 
impossible  to  class  their  arguments  as  "  scientific." 

Two  other  points  are  worth  a  passing  notice,  as  they 
belong  to  very  recent  exposition.  Van  Manen  objects  to 
what  he  calls  the  suspicious  mixture  of  singular  and  plural 
pronouns  in  the  persons  speaking  and  in  those  addressed 
in  this  letter  to  Philemon.  But  not  only  is  this  mixture 
found  in  other  Pauline  letters  (this.  Van  Manen  would  reply, 
is  nothing  to  the  point,  since  he  admits  no  Pauline  letters) ; 
but  one  result  of  the  close  study  of  the  papyri  letters  in 
a   very    miscellaneous  collection    has  been   to  show  that  in 


EPISTLES    OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     'jy 

the  same  document  singular  and  plural  pronouns  are  found 
alternated,  without  apparently  involving  any  distinction  in 
their  meaning. 

The  other  point  is  the  interesting  fact  that  not  only  is 
the  name  XpTJa-Ljxoq,  which  has  the  same  meaning  as 
Onesimus,  found  as  a  slave-name  in  the  papyri,  but  that 
the  name  itself  occurs  in  a  Greek  papyrus  B.C.  8i.  This  is 
sufficient  answer  to  the  surmise  that  the  name  may  have  been 
a  mere  invention,  or  that  it  suggests  an  allegorical  meaning. 

But  if  the  genuineness  of  Philemon  is  accepted,  we  must' 
not    forget    that   it   is    united   by  a  bond   which   cannot  be ; 
severed  with  the  letter  to  the  Colossians.      In  earlier  days) 
it    would     seem    that    Pfleiderer    had    some    doubts    about 
Philemon  ;   but  in   the  recent  edition  of  his    Urchristentuni, 
i.  p.    1 86,  he  writes,  "  Since   no  substantial  grounds  can  be 
raised  against  Philemon,  its  relation  to  the  Colossian  Epistle 
forms   a   strong  point  in  favour  of  the  genuineness  of  that 
Epistle   also,  or  at   all   events   of  an   original    letter   which 
formed   its  groundwork."  ^ 

Amongst  other  points  we  note  that  greetings  are  sent 
from  the  same  persons  in  each  Epistle,  Epaphras,  Marcus, 
Aristarchus,  Demas,  Lucas  ;  and  such  and  similar  marks 
of  connection  enable  us  to  appreciate  Dr.  Sanday's  words, 
"  Most  Englishmen  will  have  a  short  and  easy  method  for 
deciding  the  genuineness  of  Colossians  ;  for  it  is  inseparably 
bound  up  with  the  most  winning  little  letter  to  Philemon, 
which  only  pedantry  could  ever  think  of  doubting " 
{Inspiration,  p.  337). 

It  may,  of  course,  be  maintained  that  the  Jist  of  names 
in  Colossians  was  simply  borrowed  from  the  shorter  letter 
to  give  the  impression  that  both  came  from  the  same  hand  ; 
but  there  also  exist  points  of  difference  in  connection  with 
the  names  on  the  two  lists  which  makes  this  a  very  remote 
probability.  In  the  Colossians  list,  e.g.,  we  have  the  additional 
'  Clemen,  too,  is  equally  in  favour  of  its  reception  {Paulus,  i.  p.  128). 


78      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

name  of  Jesus  Justus  (Col.  iv.  ii),  who  is  described  as  one 
of  the  circumcision.  The  description  would  have  been 
scarcely  likely  to  suggest  itself  to  any  one  wishing  to 
characterise  one  of  Paul's  friends,  and  as  the  name  in 
question  does  not  occur  anywhere  else,  there  was  no  possible 
motive  for  its  introduction  here.  Or,  take  the  notice  added 
to  the  name  of  Mark  in  the  Colossian  letter  (iv.  lo),  "  If  he 
come  unto  you,  receive  him."  How  natural  this  recommenda- 
tion of  Mark  to  Churches  which,  as  Pauline  communities, 
would  not  have  been  likely  to  receive  Mark  very  readily, 
owing  to  his  earlier  estrangement  with  St.  Paul  !  But  it 
would,  on  the  other  hand,  have  been  a  bold  thing  for  a 
forger  to  introduce  Mark's  name  at  all. 

Or,  again,  it  might  be  urged  that  this  name  of  Onesimus 
in  Col.  iv.  9  was  introduced  from  the  shorter  letter  to 
Philemon ;  but,  if  so,  it  must  be  remembered  that  not  only  is 
there  no  hint  in  the  shorter  letter  that  Colosse  was  the 
home  of  Onesimus,  but  that  no  reference  is  made  in  the 
Colossian  Epistle  to  the  incidents  of  the  Epistle  to  Philemon, 
and  that  the  name  Philemon  is  never  mentioned  in  it. 
The  name  Archippus,  it  is  true,  appears  in  both  Epistles  ; 
but  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  advanced  critics  are  not 
all  agreed  as  to  whether  the  same  person  is  meant,  the  descrip- 
tion of  him  in  the  private  letter  is  different  from  that  in  the 
letter  to  the  whole  Christian  community.  In  the  first  case 
he  is  Paul's  fellow  soldier  (verse  2) ;  but  in  the  latter  we  read, 
"  And  say  to  Archippus,  Take  heed  to  the  ministry  which 
thou  hast  received  in  the  Lord,  that  thou  fulfil  it "  (Col. 
iv.  17),  words  which  might  either  suggest  a  warning  to 
Archippus,  which  no  forger  would  have  been  likely  to 
introduce,  or  which  at  all  events  could  scarcely  have  been 
supplied   by   the   brief  notice   in    Philemon. 

Once  more  :  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  founding  of  the 
Church  at  Colosse  is  evidently  attributed  to  Epaphras 
(Col.  i.  7,  iv.  12),  of  whom  we  know  nothing  elsewhere,  and  not 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     79 

to  Timothy,  although  Timothy  is  associated  with  St.  Paul 
in  the  address  of  the  letter  to  Colosse,  as  well  as  in  that  of 
the  letter  to  Philemon.  But  whilst  it  is  true  that  Epaphras 
is  mentioned  in  Philem.  verse  23,  the  mention  is  very  brief; 
he  is  simply  Paul's  fellow  prisoner,  a  title  applied  in 
Colossians  to  Aristarchus,  and  there  is  no  intimation  that 
Epaphras  ever  worked  or  founded  churches  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Colosse  (Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  349 ;  Abbott, 
Ephesians  and  Colossians,  Iviii.). 

It  would,  of  course,  be  easy  to  pursue  this  same  line  of 
argument  further ;  but  enough  has  been  said  to  prove  that, 
whilst  the  points  of  contact  in  the  personal  references  of  the 
two  Epistles  are  numerous,  they  are  by  no  means  to  be 
attributed  to  slavish  copying  or  imitation.  Moreover,  if  we 
consider  the  Colossian  letter  apart  from  that  to  Philemon, 
its  attestation  is  most  satisfactory.  It  is  no  doubt  quite 
possible  to  lay  too  much  stress  upon  probable  reminiscences 
of  the  Epistle  in  the  sub-Apostolic  writers,  but  at  the  same 
time  it  may  be  fairly  maintained  that  its  use  would  have 
been  more  general  if  its  contents  had  been  less  controversial, 
that  is  to  say,  less  concerned  with  heresies  of  a  peculiar  / 
character  (Abbott,  u.s.  p.  1.). 

In   the   Epistle   of   St.    Clement  of'  Rome  reminiscences 

have  been  alleged,  but  the  only  phrase  of  any  significance 

in  this  connection  is  in  Clem.,  Cor.  xlix  :  "  Who  can  declare  i^ 

the  bond  of  the  love  of  God  ?  "  which  has  been  compared 

with  the  definition  of  love  in   Col.  iii.  14  as  "  the  bond  of  t^ 

perfectness  "  ;  but  the  thought  is  too  general  to  establish  any 

literary   dependence.     In    the    Epistle   of  Barnabas  (xii.   7), 

where  it  is  said  of  the  glory  of  Jesus,  how  that  in  Him  and 

unto  Him  are   all    things,  we   may   quite    possibly  have   a 

reminiscence  of  Col.  i.  16,  as  Weiss  and  others  admit.^ 

'  On  these  points  of  possible  connection  see  Jacquier,  Histoire  des 
Livres  du  N.T.,  p.  324;  Abbott,  u.s.  p.  1.;  and  for  a  very  cautious 
estimate,  Meyer-Haupt,  p.  25  (1902);  and  also  The  New  Testament 
in  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  1905,  p.  12. 


8o      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

In  the  letter  of  St.  Ignatius  to  the  Smyrnaeans  (vi.  i)  we 
have  teaching  which  may  well  have  been  based  upon  Col.  i. 
i6,  20,  "  Let  no  man  be  deceived,  even  the  heavenly  beings 
and  the  glory  of  the  angels,  and  the  rulers  visible  and  in- 
visible, if  they  believe  not  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  judgment 
awaiteth  them  also."  But,  more  noticeable  still,  St.  Ignatius 
elsewhere  uses  a  striking  phrase  which  seems  to  be  borrowed 
from  the  context  of  this  same  passage  (Col.  i.  23)  ;  for  in 
EpJi.,  X.  2  he  exhorts  his  converts  to  be  "  steadfast  in  the 
faith,"  a  phrase  which  occurs  again  in  Polycarp's  Epistle 
(x.  i),  and  in  each  case  the  same  adjective  for  "  steadfast  "  is 
used  as  in  Col.  i.  23  associated  with  faith,^ 

In  this  short  Epistle  of  Polycarp  it  is  also  quite  possible 
that  the  close  connection  of  cov^etousness  with  idolatry  in 
xi.  2,  "  If  a  man  refrain  not  from  covetousness,  he  shall  be 
defiled  with  idolatry,"  is  due  to  Col.  iii.  5,  where  covetous- 
ness is  described  as  idolatry. 

When  we  pass  to  the  great  Apologist  Justin  Martyr,  we 
find  him  no  less  than  five  times  speaking  of  Christ  as 
TrpwTOTO/cos,  and  in  each  case  the  context  shows  that  he 
uses  the  expression  in  the  same  connection  as  Col.  i.  15,^ 
whilst  another  Apologist,  Theophilus  of  Antioch,  also  applies 
the  same  phrase  to  our  Lord,  "  the  First-born  of  all  creation  " 
{Ad  AutoL,  ii.  22).  The  testimony  of  St.  Irenaeus,  of  St. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  of  Tertullian  is  positive.  Thus  the 
former,  writing  Against  Heresies,  iii.  14.  i,  quotes,  and  refers 
to  Paul,  the  words  used  in  Col.  iv.  14,  "  Luke,  the  beloved 
physician,  greeteth  you."  Origen  also  quotes  from  Col. 
ii.  18-19  in  his  controversy  with  the  heathen  Celsus  (v.  8). 

It  is  noticeable  that  St.  Irenaeus  in  several   places  refers 

to  the  perversions  which   St.  Paul's  words  to  the  Colossians 

W  had    suffered    at  the  hands  of  the  disciples  of  Valentinus, 

cf  U.S.  i.  3.  4,  and  in  the  same  passage  and  in   i.  8.  4,  5,  he 

'  See  also  The  New  Testament  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  p.  74. 
*  See  especially  Meyer-Haupt,  p.  26  (1902). 


EPISTLES   OF   THE    FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     8i 

refers  to  similar  perversions  of  the  words  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians.  In  the  same  manner,  according  to  Hippo- 
lytus,  the  Docetae  and  the  Peratse  had  misused  for  their  own 
purposes  such  passages  as  Col.  ii.  9,  14-15  (Jacquier,  ti.s. 
p.  324).  The  Epistle,  moreover,  was  received  by  Marcion 
amongst  the  ten  which  he  attributed  to  St.  Paul.  In  this 
connection  it  is  well  to  remind  ourselves  that  Schmiedel 
lays  great  stress  upon  this  acceptance  by  Marcion  of  ten  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistles  at  140  A.D.  (see  Encycl.  Bib  I.,  ii.  1623). 

But  in  his  criticism  of  the  Epistle  before  us  we  have  an/ 
instance  of  the  arbitrary  method  which  Schmiedel  can  adopt.  J 
According  to  him,  we  cannot  place  Colossians  earlier  thani 
100,  because  Eusebius  tells  us  that  Gnosticism  first  rose  my 
Trajan's  time  {Encycl.  Bibl.,  Art.  "  Ministry,"  iii.  3120).      This/ 
statement  entirely  begs  the  question   that  the   Epistle  was-, 
directed  against  Gnostic  errors.      The  germs  of  Gnosticism' 
were  certainly  in  existence  long  before  the  days  of  Trajan,; 
and  it  may  be  admitted  that  there  is  an  embryo  Gnosticism  \ 
in  the   New  Testament  which  finds  "  a  proper  place  in  the  1 
history  of  religious  development  "  ;  ^  but  this  is  a  very  different 
matter,    as   we   shall    see   later,    from   the  admission   of  the  I 
developed  Gnosticism  of  the  second  century,^  of  which  it  is/ 
really  more  correct  to  say  that  it  is  itself,  in  some   of  its! 
phraseology,  dependent  upon  the  New  Testament  J 

But  this  is  not  all.  Schmiedel,  having  placed  an 
arbitrary  date  as  a  termimis  a  quo,  arbitrarily  places  another 
date  (130  A.D.)  as  a  terminus  ad  quern.  The  Epistle  cannot 
be  brought  down  later  than  Marcion  (this  we  have  seen  to 
be  admitted)  ;  and  so  we  are  asked  to  suppose  it  possible 
that  an  Epistle  in  which  there  was  much  to  differentiate  it 
from  some  of  St.  Paul's  earlier  v/ritings,  would  be  accepted 
without  hesitation  by  the  Church,  and  not  only  so,  but  by 
those    who   were   opposed    to   the    Church's  teaching.      The 

^  Sanday,  "  Colossians,"  in  Smith's  B.D.,  p.  628,  2nd  edit. 

-  Friedlander,  Der  vorchistliche  iiidische  Gnosticisinus,  p.  66. 


82       TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

same   arbitrariness    characterises    Schmiedel's    treatment   of 
Ephesians  in  the  same  paragraph. 

But  this  attack  by  Schmiedel  is  the  more  remarkable 
because  it  will  scarcely  be  denied  that  the  tendency  of 
recent  criticism  has  been  considerably  in  favour  of  Colossians 
as  a  genuine  work  of  St.  Paul.^ 

Harnack  accepts  it  himself,  and  draws  attention  to  the 
fact  that  this  view  is  gaining  more  and  more  adherents. 
Amongst  supporters  of  the  Pauline  authorship  may  be 
ranked  Blass,  Zahn,  Clemen,  Sabatier,  whilst  Jiilicher 
declares  for  it  in  one  remarkable  passage  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl. 
(Art.  "  Colossians  ").  In  the  same  article  Jiilicher  speaks  of 
the  notorious  theory  of  Holtzmann  as  too  complicated  to  be 
accepted.^ 

The  external  testimony  is  the  best  possible,  and  at  every 
step  genuinely  Pauline  turns  of  thought  are  recalled.  And 
here,  too,  it  may  be  added  that  Von  Soden  practically  accepts 
the  whole  Epistle,  with  the  exception  of  i.  i6b-\'j. 

Pfleiderer,  in  the  new  edition  of  his  Urcliristentum,  has 
aeain  come  forward  as  in  some  sort  an  adherent  of  Holtz- 
mann's  complicated  theory.  At  the  same  time,  while  he 
attributes,  at  all  events,  the  bulk  of  the  Epistle  to  a  Pauline 
who  was  nearer  than  his  master  to  Gnosticism,  revising  and 
expanding  an  original  letter  of  St.  Paul  for  his  own  needs, 
he  frankly  admits  that  the  reconstruction  of  this  original 
letter  seems  to  him  to  be  an  impossibility  {ii.s.  i.  p.  191). 

But  it  will  be  noted  that  the  attacks  made  upon  the 
Epistle  by  Pfleiderer,  Hilgenfeld,  Weizsacker,  are  based 
almost  entirely  upon  the  supposition,  as  in  the  attack  of 
Schmiedel,  that  the  writing  is  directed  against  some  later 
form  of  Gnosticism  characteristic  of  the  second  century. 
In  relation  to  this  kind  of  attack   it   may  be  observed  that 

'  Clemen  has  recently  argued  for  its  acceptance,  although  he  still 
thinks  it  necessary  to  exclude  three  verses  in  chapter  i.,  viz.  18-20. 

-  See,  to  the  same  effect,  Jacqiiier,  u.s.  p.  2^21 ;  Meyer-Haupt,  p.  82 
(1902);  Salmon,  I?iiroduciio?i,  p.  391. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     83 

there  is  no  particular  form  of  later   Gnosticism    with   which 
the  errors  combated  in  the  Colossian  letter  can  be  identified, 
that  such  terms  as  are  found  in  later   Gnosticism  are  used 
in  this  Epistle  in  no  technical  sense,  and  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  one  does  not  find  here  the  terms  which  are  undoubtedly 
characteristic    of    the    Gnosticism    of    the    second    century         ^ 
{Jacquier,  ?/.s.  p.  331).      If,  however,  such  terms  as  TrX-qpcoixa^"'^ 
and   [xvcTTTJpLOv   were   used   at  all    by   the    teachers  whom/ 
Paul    was    opposing,   the    Apostle    might    in    all    likelihood 
have  made  some  reference  to  .4hem  ;    he  might  even    have 
taken  them  up,  "  only  he  would  stamp  them  with  a  meaning*"^ 
of  his  own."  ^ 

Bishop    Lightfoot,  in    his    famous    Commentary    on   this 
Epistle,  which    still    holds  its  place  in  the  front  rank,  traces    X 
the   false   teaching   at    Colosse    to    Essene    influences,^    and 
there  are  many  features  doubtless  in  Essenism,  so  far  as  we 
know  it,  which  are  similar  to  those  apparently  characteristic 
of  the  false  teaching  at  Colosse.      But  historically  we  knovv^ 
nothing  of  Essenism  outside  Palestine  ;  and   whilst  there  are 
points  of  similarity  between  it  and  the  errors  rife  at  Colosse, 
yet   it  may  be    affirmed  with  equal  force  that  many  of  the 
most  distinctive  features  of  Essenism  are  not  mentioned,  or 
even   referred    to   in  this  Colossian   Epistle.^     At  the  same 
time   it   must    be   duly  remembered   that    Bishop   Lightfoot 
does  not  contend  for  a  precise  identity  of  origin  between  the 
Colossian  heresy  and  Essenism,  but  only  an  essential  affinity 
of   type.      At    all    events,  it    may    well    be   that  the  samel 
inflluences  were  at  work  not  only  in   Palestine,  but  outside  it,     _^.J-^ 
and  the  term  Gnostic  Judaism  may  best  cover  the  points  of  ,         ' 
relationship  between  Essenism  and   the  tendencies  working.) 
at    Colosse.       Moreover,    it    is    quite    possible    that    within 
Judaism    itself  there    was   working   an  incipient  and   latent 

'  Weiss,  Present  Status  of  Inquiry  concerning  Pauline  Epistles, 
P-  50. 

-  See  also  Weiss,  u.s.  p.  47. 

*  Sanday,  Art.  "  Colossians,"  in  Smith's  B.D.,  p.  628,  2nd  edit. 


84      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Gnosticism,  which   even   in    his   earlier  letters   St.  Paul  had 
found  it  needful  to  bear  in  mind.^ 

In  this  most  brief  examination  of  this  most  difficult 
question  it  is  always  of  interest  to  note  that  the  chief 
opposition  to  Lightfoot's  theory  of  Essene  influence  came 
from  Dr.  Hort.  According  to  him,  we  are  throughout  on 
common  Jewish  ground.  The  alien  influences  at  Colosse 
would  be  found  quite  naturally  in  any  form  of  Judaistic 
;  Christianity.  In  some  particulars  the  warnings  have  un- 
deniably a  Jewish  reference  (Hort,  Judaistic  Christianity ^ 
pp.  117,  125),  as,  e.g.,  in  the  matter  of  meat  and  drink,  or 
of  a  feast,  or  new  moon,  or  sabbath  ;  there  is  no  sign  of 
what  is  popularly  called  Gnosticism.  "  The  elements  of 
the  world "  (ii.  20)  can  hardly  be  other  than  the  Jewish 
elements  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  (Gal.  iv.  8-9). 
Even  the  term  "  philosophy "  need  not  carry  us  beyond 
these  particular  Jewish  observances.  Those  who  advocated 
their  retention  might  have  called  this  movement  in  their 
favour  "  the  philosophy,"  although  Dr.  Hort  quite  admits 
that  there  may  also  have  been  an  accessory  influence 
from  some  popular  Greek  ethical  and  philosophic  teaching 
{ti.s.  p.  129). 

It  is  only  fair  to  allude,  in  passing,  to  the  possible  influence 
of  Alexandria,  upon  which  McGiffert,  Von  Soden,"  and 
others  lay  stress,  no  less  than  of  Palestinian  Judaism.  Philo 
and  Josephus  speak  of  Jewish  theology  by  the  term 
"  philosophy,"  and  it  is  argued  that  the  stress  laid  upon 
angels  and  visions  points  to  the  same  source  (Mofifatt, 
Historical  N.T.,  p.  216,  who  apparently  inclines  to  the  same 
view). 

But  whilst  it  is  very  difficult  to  determine  what  and  how 
wide  may  have  been  the  influences  at  work  in   Colosse,  local 

'  Jacquier,  u.s.  p.  331. 

*  But    see,     on    the    other    hand,    Jiilicher,    EficycL    Bibl.,    Art. 
"  Colossians,"  i.  863. 


EPISTLES    OF   THE    FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     8  ^"^ 

surroundings  and  the  religious  atmosphere  of  the  neighbour- 
ing district  must  be  taken  into  account. 

From  the  position  of  Colosse  and  the  advantageous 
openings  which  it  afforded  to  Jewish  teachers,  Jewish  influ- 
ences would  naturally  be  expected,  and  some  of  the  observ- 
ances in  the  Church  to  which  reference  is  made  are,  as  we 
have  already  noted,  undoubtedly  Jewish,  although  at  the 
same  time  the  way  in  which  circumcision  is  spoken  of  does 
not  warrant  us  in  supposing  that  its  practice  was  for  Colosse 
a  crucial  question  as  for  the  Churches  of  Galatia. 

But  there  are  other  elements  in  the  Colossian  heresy  which 
were  new,  as  compared  with  what  we  gather  from   St.  Paul's 
earlier  epistles,  e.g.   angel-worship,  and  this  is  admitted  by  | 
those  who  hold  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  step  beyond  the 
bounds  of  a  developed  Judaising  teaching  in  our  considera-_j 
tion  of  the  Epistle  (Hort,  u.s.  p.  122). 

But  if  angel-worship  can  be  connected  with  the  Judaising 
tendencies  at  work  in  the  first  Christian  century,  and  if, 
indeed,  it  was  "  a  widely  spread  Jewish  habit  of  mind,"  it 
also  fell  in  with  much  of  the  theosophic  speculation  which 
was  rife  in  Phrygia,  in  the  Lycus  valley,  and  in  the  cities 
of  Laodicea,   Hierapolis,  Colosse. 

In  this  connection  it  is  of  interest  to  note  how  long  this 
worship  of  angels  found  a  home  on  Phrygian  soil.^  More- 
over, the  natural  phenomena  of  these  regions  would  tend  to 
encourage  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  angelic  or  demonic 
powers  intermediate  between  the  supreme  God  or  gods  and 
man.^  Whilst  there  were  therefore  strictly  Jewish  tendencies 
at  work  in  Colosse,  there  may  well  have  been  combined 
with  them  tendencies  congenial  to  the  place  and  the  time^ 

1  Cf.  Ramsay,  C.R.E.,  p.  477,  and  Art.  "Phrygia"  in  Hastings' 
B.D.  ;  Abbott,  Colossians,  p.  xlix.,  and  Moffatt,  ic.s.  p.  216,  who  quotes 
the  interesting  view  of  Haupt,  and  Professor  V.  Bartlet,  Apostolic 
Age,  p.  186. 

^  See  Ramsay,  u.s.  p.  477,  Meyer-Haupt,  p.  16  (1902). 

^  See  also  Jiilicher,  Art.  "  Colossians,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  i. 


86      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

congenial  to  a  Phrygian  atmosphere  so  full  of  theosophy 
and  mystic  cults.  That  some  such  combination  was  pre- 
valent is  held  by  Ramsay,  and  in  Germany  by  a  recent 
writer  whose  work  on  the  primitive  Christian  Churches  has 
excited  very  considerable  attention  in  England,  E.  Von 
Dobschutz/ 

But  whatever  view  we  adopt  as  to  the  component  parts 
of  the  heresy  in  question,  it  may  be  asserted  without  hesita- 
tion that  there  is  no  need  to  find  in  St.  Paul's  words,  or 
in  his  refutation  of  the  false  teaching  which  assailed  the 
Colossian  Church,  anything  inconsistent  with  the  belief  that 
the  Colossian  Epistle  was  written  by  the  Apostle  from 
Rome  during  the  period  of  his  first  imprisonment.^ 

But  if  we  are  unable  to  say  more  than  this  as  to  the 
exact  elements  of  the  Colossian  heresy,  in  any  case  it  is 
evident,  as  is  admitted  by  the  holders  of  any  of  the  views 
to  which  reference  has  been  made,  that  St.  Paul's  great  and 
main  fear  was  that  the  new  teaching  would  tend  to  dis- 
paragement or  denial  of  the  headship  and  lordship  of  Christ 
Himself.  If,  e.g.,  some  form  of  Judaistic  Christianity  was 
the  enemy  to  be  combated  the  mere  acceptance  of  Jesus 
as  the  Messiah  might  be  quite  compatible  with  retaining 
him  at  the  highest  among  the  angels;  whilst  if  pagan 
tendencies  had  to  be  met  there  was  in  these  also  the  same 
danger  lest  Christ  should  be  thrust  down,  as  it  were,  to  a 
place  in   the  series  of  intermediate  and  created  beings,  and 

•  See  his  Die  urchristlichen  Gemeinden,  p.  84  (1902).  Jiilicher, 
Colossians,  u.s.,  holds,  however,  that  the  false  teachers  need  not 
have  been  Jews  at  all,  but  that  they  were  baptized  "  mysteriosophists  " 
who  found  means  to  satisfy  their  previous  notions  of  a  sort  of  inter- 
mediate beings  between  the  extra-mundane  God  and  the  world  by  the 
forms  of  a  newly  invented  worship  of  ang-els,  while  they  assumed  a  kind 
of  Judaising  appearance  by  claiming  to  comply  with  all  the  demands 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

*  For  the  language  of  the  Epistle  and  its  consistency  with  the  view 
of  a  Pauline  authorship,  see  Meyer-Haupt,  p.  27  (1902),  and  Abbott's 
Colossians,  lii.,  on  the  striking  comparison  between  St.  Paul  and  Xeno- 
phon  in  regard  to  the  employment  of  a  varying  vocabulary. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     87 

from   His  proper  place  as  the  head  of  all   principality  and 
power. 

In  either  case  it  was  nothing  to  the  Apostle  by  what 
names  these  intermediary  beings  might  be  called.  In  a 
tone  which  has  been  not  unjustly  characterised  as  almost 
indicative  of  impatience  he  goes  through  the  list  of  some 
of  them  (Col.  i.  16;  cf  Eph.  i.  21).  But  whether  there 
were  thrones  or  dominions  or  principalities  or  powers,  there 
was  one  kingdom  into  which  every  Christian  had  been  trans- 
lated, the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  God's  love  (Col.  i.  13)  ; 
there  was  one  Person  in  whom  redemption  and  forgiveness  of 
sins  could  be  obtained.  Angelic  beings,  however  many  and 
great,  had  had  no  share  in  the  work  of  creation  ;  angelic 
beings  had  had  no  share  in  the  work  of  redemption ;  Christ  and 
Christ  alone  had  been  the  agent  in  the  one  as  in  the  other, 
and  as  in  Him  all  things  had  been  created,  so  in  His  Cross  all 
things  had  been  freed  from  the  alien  powers  of  sin  and  Satan. 
All  the  aspirations  of  men's  minds  after  wisdom  had  been 
fulfilled  in  Him  (cf  ii.  2  ;  "  Christum  scire  est  omnia  scire  ")  ; 
all  the  longings  of  the  human  heart  for  a  revelation  of  God, 
a  vision  fairer  than  that  of  the  sons  of  men,  had  been  realised 
in  Him  (cf  ii.  9). 

But  while  all  this  high  Christology  is  so  manifest,  nowhere^ 
perhaps    are  we    more   sensible   of  the    practical    genius   of 
St.    Paul   than    in    these    two    kindred    Epistles,   Colossians  / 
and   Ephesians.  J 

As  he  dwells  upon  the  thought  of  a  new  creation  St.>. 
Paul  never  forgets  how  man  had  been  made  in  the  image 
of  God  ;  he  does  not  forget  that  the  noblest  work  of  Christian 
faith  and  hope  and  life  consisted  in  the  endeavour  to  put  on 
the  new  man,  "  which  is  being  renewed  unto  knowledge  after 
the  image  of  Him  that  created  him"  (Col.  iii.  10),  and  that 
endeavour  was  to  be  made  in  the  power  of  the  risen  and 
ascended  Christ,  in  Him  who  is  Vita  vitce  nostra,  ''  the 
Life  of  our  life." 


t 


88       TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

And  so,  whilst  the  power  of  that  Life  transcends  the 
bounds  of  time  and  of  the  created  universe,  whilst  it  breaks 
down  every  national,  legal,  ceremonial,  intellectual  barrier, 
it  touches  with  its  supreme  and  healing  charm,  it  purifies 
and  enriches  with  the  word  and  with  the  peace  of  Christ, 
every  daily  social  relationship,  making  home  and  heaven 
kindred   points. 

An  endeavour  will  be  made  to  refer  again  to  such  con- 
siderations in  a  third  series  of  these  lectures  ;  but  here  we 
may  note  the  significant  fact  that  these  letters  from  Rome 
give  us  for  the  first  time  the  picture  of  Christian  family 
life  viewed  in  all  its  three  marked  relationships,^  of  husband 
and  wife,  of  parent  and  child,  of  master  and  servant,  and 
that  in  each  and  all  the  ideal  and  the  fulness  of  the  Christian 
life  is  presented  to  us  in  that  one  simple  phrase,  "  In  the 
Lord." 

As  St.  Paul  wrote  from  Corinth  to  Rome,  it  may  well 
be  that  the  appalling  picture  of  heathen  society  in  Rom.  i. 
may  have  been  drawn  from  the  life  of  a  city  proverbial  for 
its  vice  and  infamy  ;  and  when  he  passed  from  Corinth  to 
Rome  itself,  the  Apostle  may  have  realised  more  and  more 
in  the  imperial  city  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin.  But 
neither  in  Corinth  inor  in  Rome  had  the  light  failed  of  the 
vision  of  man  made  in  the  image  of  God  (cf  i  Cor.  xi.  7  ; 
Col.  iii.  10)  ;  and  with  the  vision  there  had  come  the  hope 
of  a  re-creation  of  family  life,  the  thought  of  husband  and 
wife  united  no  longer  by  the  uncertain  ties  of  human 
caprice  or  passion,  but  by  a  love  which  was  the  bond  of 
perfectness,  a  love  sanctified  and  glorified  in  the  love  of 
Christ  for  His  Church.^  What  the  world  owes  to  the  social 
teaching  of  St.  Paul,  who  shall  say  ?  Let  us  remember  how 
Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  Data  of  Ethics,  when  dwelling  upon 
the  conception  of  justice   as   involving  equalness  of  action, 

^  Lock,  Paul  the  Master-Builder,  p.  1x2. 
'  Salmon,  Introduction,  p.  396,  5th  edit, 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     89 

quotes  with  approval  St.  Paul's  words  to  the  Colossians, 
"  Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and 
equal "  {^Speaker's  Commentary  on  the  N.  7".,  iii.  827). 

One  other  point  connected  with  the  high  Christology 
of  the  Colossian  and  Ephesian  Epistles  demands  attention. 
It  is  alleged  that  the  view  taken  in  both  these  Epistles 
of  our  Lord's  person  is  un-Pauline,  and  may  be  used  as 
an  argument  against  the  authorship  of  these  two  writings 
by  St.  Paul. 

But  surely  the  force  of  this  objection  would  be  most 
seriously  weakened  if  we  could  point  to  a  genuine  writing 
of  the  Apostle  composed  at  the  same  date  as  that  which 
we  claim  for  Colossians  and  Ephesians,  emphasising  with 
them  the  significance  of  the  savipg  work  of  Christ  in 
relation  to  the  whole  universe/  and  containing  a  passage 
which  we  may  fairly  call  the  crowning  expression  to  that 
doctrine  of  the  person  of  Christ  which  the  Colossian 
Epistle  contains.  We  have  such  a  writing  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians,  admitted,  as  we  shall  see,  by  writers 
of  widely  differing  schools  of  thought  to  come  to  us  from 
St.  Paul.  Indeed,  no  Epistle,  except,  perhaps,  each  of  those 
contained  under  the  title  Hauptbriefe  and  i  Thessalonians, 
is  more  universally  acknowledged  to  be  the  work  of  St. 
Paul.^  And  this  Epistle,  let  us  never  forget,  contains  such 
words  as  these  :  "  Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also 
in  Christ  Jesus,  who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  counted  it 
not  a  prize  to  be  on  an  equality  with  God,  but  emptied 
Himself,  taking  the  form  of  a  servant,  being  made  in  the 
likeness  of  men  "  (Phil.  ii.  6-'j^. 

•  Weiss,  The  Present  Status,  etc.,  p.  61,  and  Findlay,  Epistles  of 
Paul  the  Apostle,  p.  194. 

^  In  quarters  in  which  we  might  not  expect  it,  the  striking  corre- 
spondence has  been  emphasised,  as  by  Von  Soden,  in  language  and 
thought  between  Colossians  and  "  the  only  other  document  which  we 
possess  from  this  Apostle's  hand  during  his  Roman  imprisonment'' 
(as  Von  Soden  does  not  accept  Ephesians) ;  Abbott,  Ephesians  and 
Colossians,  p.  Iviii, 


90      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

Pfleiderer  is  greatly  puzzled  by  this  passage,  and  no 
wonder  {Urchristentuin,  i.  pp.  i8i,  233,  2nd  edit).  How  is 
the  problem  to  be  solved  ?  Pfleiderer,  with  Schmiedel  and 
Bruckner,  would  have  us  see  an  interpolation  in  the  words, 
and  thus  he  would  read,  "  Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which 
was  also  in  Christ  Jesus,  .  .  .  who  humbled  Himself,  being 
obedient  unto  death,"  etc.  But  surely  this  strikes  us  as  an 
extraordinary  method  of  solving  a  difficulty  !  The  passage 
in  question,  so  it  is  urged,  is  not  written  by  the  Apostle 
Paul  himself,  but  by  a  deutero-Pauline  writer,  who  inserted 
the  words  which  proclaim  our  Lord's  pre-existence  and 
divine  nature.  We  live,  however,  in  days  when  the  theory 
of  interpolations,  possible  or  impossible,  is  popular,  and  it 
is  certainly  "  a  short  and  easy  method "  to  apply  to  a 
troublesome  passage.  And  the  critics  in  question  have 
already  proved  themselves  adepts  in  introducing  this  theory 
of  interpolations  in  other  New  Testament  passages,  as,  e.g., 
in  the  omission  of  Luke  i.  34-5,  in  the  account  of  the  Virgin 
birth  of  our  Lord,  in  the  omission,  i.e.,  of  the  two  verses 
which  beyond  all  doubt  proclaim  that  part  of  the  Church's 
creed. 

Moreover,  it  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  his 
earlier  Epistles  St.  Paul  had  spoken  of  the  dignity  of  our 
Lord,  of  the  supreme  and  unique  value  attaching  to  His 
person  and  His  work,  in  a  manner  calculated  to  prevent 
surprise  that  he  should  express  himself  as  he  does  in  the 
Colossian  Epistle,  especially  when  we  remember  that  the 
circumstances  of  his  converts  and  their  exposure  to  the 
dangers  of  false  doctrine  obliged  him  to  assert  this  sole 
supremacy  of  Christ  and  His  sole  lordship  in  creation,  in 
redemption,  in  history.  Already  to  the  Corinthians  St. 
^  Paul  had  spoken  of  "  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  through  whom 
are  all  things,  and  we  through  Him  "  (i  Cor.  viii.  6)  ;  already 
to  the  Corinthians  St.  Paul  had  proclaimed  that  all  things 
are   of  God,  and   that   God   was   in    Christ    reconciling   the 


EPISTLES    OF   THE   FIRST   IMPRISONMENT     91 

world  unto  Himself.  And  now  in  Rome,  "  the  centre  of 
the  world  of  men,"  ^  it  might  well  be  that  the  Apostle's 
horizon  is  still  more  widely  enlarged.  The  Gospel  of  which 
he  is  a  minister  is  no  mere  local  Gospel  ;  already  he  thinks 
of  it  as  "  preached  in  all  creation  under  heaven  "  (Col.  i.  23), 
and  Christ,  who  is  the  source  and  substance  of  that  Gospel, 
has  become  "  all  and  in  all  "  (iii.  11). 

Haupt  is  certainly  fully  justified  in  asking  why  should  \ 
such  an  expression  as  "  the  First-born  of  all  creation,"  in  ! 
Col.  i.  16,  be  interpreted  with  reference  to  the  heterogeneous 
thought  and  language  of  Philo,  and  not  rather  in  relation 
to  the  homogeneous  thought  of  St.  Paul  in  i  Cor.  viii.  6  ? 
The  earlier  letters  of  St.  Paul,  at  least,  contain  anticipations  \ 
of  Colossians,  whilst  between  Philo  and  Colossians  there  i^'' 
a  great  gulf  fixed. 

And    yet,    even    if   we    are    constrained    to    admit    that  ', 
Colossians  presents   Pauline  Christology  in   a  new  develop-     i 
ment,  let  us  remember  that  it  is  the  same  critic,  Jiilicher,    j 
to  whom  reference  has  been  made  on  earlier  occasions,  who    | 
asks  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.   (i.  864,  Art.  "  Colossians "),  "  But     ! 
why  should  not  Paul  himself  have  carried  on  his  Christology     \ 
to  this  development  in  view  of  new  errors  which  demanded 
new  statements  of  truth  ?      The  fact  is  that  in   some  cases      I 
probably  he  has  simply  appropriated  and  applied  to  Christ      | 
formulae  as,  say,  ii.  9,  which  the  false  teachers  had  employed 
in    reference    to   their    mediating   beings,  and    his   theology 
as    a    whole    never    becomes    fully    rounded    and    complete 
in  such  a  sense  as  to  exclude   fresh  points  of  view  or  new      / 
expressions  "  (with  which  compare  Weiss,  Present  State,  etc., 
pp.  49-50). 

And  he  then  proceeds  to  add  two  very  significant  remarks 

from   such  a  quarter:   (i)  That  none  of  the  Gnostic  systems 

of   the   second   century  known    to    us   can   be  shown  to  be 

present  in  Colossians  ;  and  (2)  That  the  false  teachers  with 

'  Vernon  Bartlet,  Apostolic  Age,  p.  189. 


92      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

whom  the  Epistle  makes  us  acquainted  could  have  made 
their  appearance  within  the  Christian  Church  in  the  year 
60  A.D.  just  as  easily  as  in  120. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  instructive  of  the  many 
archaeological  "  finds  "  of  our  own  generation  is  the  epitaph 
on  the  grave  of  the  great  Christian  saint  Avircius,  the 
famous  Bishop  of  Hieropolis,  a  discovery  which  we  owe  to 
Professor  Ramsay  as  he  wandered  through  the  valleys  and 
villages  of  Phrygia/ 

The    epitaph    carries   us    right   back   to   the    days  of  the 

second  century,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  its 

value,  especially  as  it  is  placed,  even   by  Schmiedel,  about 

190  A.D.      But  as  the  saint  had  travelled,  as  the  epitaph  tells 

us,  far  and  wide,  east  and  west,  it  is  plain  that  what  he  has 

inscribed  carries  us  back  to  the  experiences  of  a  considerably 

earlier  date.      And   the   most  remarkable  thing  is  this,  that 

everywhere,    at   that   early  date,   and  in   those    distant   and 

widely   separated   lands,   the    saint   finds  the    same    Church 

and  the    same    sacraments,  and   the  same    faith.       And  to 

whom  did  they  owe  their  origin  ?     Avircius  tells  us  that  he  is 

the  disciple  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  with  large  eyes  looking 

everywhere,    who  feeds    His   flocks    on   the    mountains   and 

plains.      But  not  only  so ;   Avirciu.=  travels  "  with   Paul   in 

his   hands  "  :  no  other  Apostle  or  teacher  finds  a   place  by 

name  at  least  in  his  epitaph.      Surely  amongst  the   letters 

of  Paul   in  which  the  saint  thus  found  his  constant  study 

and    guidance    may    well    have    been    the    Epistle    to    the 

Colossians,  with  its  message  not  only  for  Colosse,  not  only 

for  the   towns,  but  for  the  villages  of  Phrygia,  a  message 

which  had  spread  far  and  wide  long  before  Avircius  in  his 

old  age  thus  proclaimed  its  power  and   influence,  a  message 

which  was  in  very  truth  one  and  the  same  for  every  race 

'  Ramsay,  Expositor,  ix.  3rd  Series  ;  Zahn,  Art.  "  Avircius  "  in  new 
edition  of  Herzog,  Heft  13  ;  Frankland,  The  Early  Eucharist,  p.  63  ; 
and  V.  Bartlet  on  Harnack's  theory  as  to  the  epitaph  in  question, 
Critical  Review,  K^xW,  1896. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     93 

and  for  every  land,  for  every  Church,  for  every  Christian 
family,  a  message  which  made  Avircius,  though  absent  in 
the  flesh,  present  with  his  fellow-worshippers  throughout  the 
world,  "joying  and  beholding  their  order,"  as  of  the  house- 
hold of  God,  "  and  their  steadfastness  in  the  faith  of  Christ " 
(Col.  ii.  5). 


LECTURE    VI 

THE  EPISTLES  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPRISONMENT 

(continued) 

IF  we  exclude  for  the  present  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  no 
Epistle  amongst  all  attributed  to  St.  Paul  has  been 
more  keenly  disputed  than  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians. 
It  is  noticeable  that  Renan,  who  placed  it  alone  in  his  fourth 
class  as  probably  spurious,  acknowledged  at  the  same  time 
that  this  Epistle  is  "  perhaps  the  one  of  which  there  are 
most  early  quotations  as  the  work  of  the  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles  "  ;  and  so  far  as  this  aspect  of  evidence  is  concerned, 
it  certainly  seems  to  have  been  much  better  known  than 
many  of  the  writings  of  St.  Paul. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  we  can  trace  some  reminiscences 
of  the  Epistle  in  St.  Clement  of  Rome  at  the  close  of 
the  first  century  (as,  e.g.,  Cor.,  xxxviii.  i  ;  Eph.  v.  21), 
although  there  may  be,  sometimes,  nothing  but  a  common 
employment  of  traditional  words  and  phrases.  But  the 
appeal  of  St.  Clement  {Cor.,  xlvi.  6)  against  strife  and  sedi- 
tion, against  the  madness  of  forgetting  that  we  are  members 
one  of  another,  certainly  recalls  the  appeal  of  the  Ephesian 
Epistle  (cf  iv.  4-6,  25).  In  addition  to  such  instances  we 
must  remember  the  very  remarkable  words  in  St.  Clement 
{Cor.,  xxxvi.  2),  "  Through  Him  the  eyes  of  our  heart  were 
opened."  We  turn  to  Eph.  i.  18,  and  the  best  critical 
text  (R.V.  and  W.H.,  so  Von  Soden,  in  loco)  gives  us  a 
rendering  of  the  opening  words  of  the  verse,  "  Having  the 
eyes  of  your  heart  enlightened,"  in  which  it  is  very  difficult  not 

94 


EPISTLES   OF   THE    FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     95 

to  see  a  most  probable  source  of  St.  Clement's  phraseology.^ 
In  the  DidacJie  (iv.  lo-ii),  or  rather  in  the  document  which 
underlies  part  of  it,  The  Two  Ways,  as  in  the  so-called  Epistle 
of  Barnabas  (xix.  7),  we  have  language  which  seems  to  have 
been  inspired  by  Eph.  vi.  5,  9,  as  to  the  relationship  between 
master  and  servant,  a  coincidence  best  accounted  for,  in  Dr. 
Hort's  judgment,  by  supposing  that  our  Epistle  was  known 
to  the  writer  of  the  Didache.  We  can  hardly  doubt  that 
St.  Ignatius  was  also  acquainted  with  the  Epistle  to  the 
Ephesians.  The  reference  of  the  much-disputed  passage  in 
his  own  letter  to  the  Ephesians  (xii.  2),  a  passage  in  which 
Ignatius  speaks  of  his  converts  as  "  associates  in  the  mysteries 
with  Paul,"  to  Eph.  iii.  4,  seems  probable  enough,  especially 
when  we  remember  that  in  the  same  context  the  writer 
speaks  of  Paul  in  words  which  may  be  rendered,  "  Who 
makes  mention  of  you  in  every  part  of  his  letter."  "  At  the 
same  time  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  latter  ex- 
pression is  open  to  a  very  different  interpretation,  and  may 
simply  mean  "  in  every  letter."  ^  But  quite  apart  from  this 
passage,  it  may  fairly  be  maintained  that  the  address  of  St. 
Ignatius,  in  the  opening  of  his  Ephesian  letter,  reminds  us 
strongly  of  the  opening  verses  of  our  canonical  Epistle,*  and 
such  an  expression,  e.g.^  as  "  being  imitators  of  God  "  may 
well  be  a  reminiscence  of  Eph.  v.  i,  the  same  word  for 
"  imitators  "  occurring  in  each,  and  the  exact  phrase  only  in 
Ephesians  in  the  New  Testament. 

Other  passages  in  Ignatius  also  suggest  acquaintance  ;  and 
in  his  letter  to  Polycarp  (v.  i),  Ignatius  expresses  himself  in 
words,  which  we  can  scarcely  hesitate  to  regard  as  a  definite 

^  Hort,  Romans  and  Ephesians,  p.  113.  The  preceding-  sentences 
in  Clement  have  considerable  affinity  with  Eph.  i.  4-6,  17,  as  is  noted  in 
New  Testament  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers  (Oxford,  1905,  p.  53). 

^  So  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Ephesians,  Smith's  B.D.,^  952  seq.  (cf.  also 
Dr.  Lock,  Ephesians,  Hastings'  B.D.,  i.  716). 

^  See  Hort,  u.s.  p.  113,  who  calls  the  former  an  impossible  rendering  ; 
and  Abbott,  Ephesians ,  p.  xi, 

*  Hort,  U.S.  p.  144  ;  Belser,  Einleitung  in  das  N.2\.,  p.  565. 


96      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

reference  to  Eph.  v.  25,  "Likewise  also  charge  my  brethren 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  to  love  their  wives,  as  the  Lord 
loved  the  Church."  ' 

The  testimony  of  St.  Polycarp  himself  is  very  remarkable. 
Without  laying  too  much  stress  upon  such  words  as  "  by 
grace  are  ye  saved,  not  of  works,"  in  Polycarp,  Phil.,  i,  2, 
which  are,  however,  in  literal  accordance  with  Eph.  ii.  8-9, 
it  seems  impossible  to  ignore  the  force  of  Polycarp,  Phil., 
xii.  I,  (for  although  the  attempt  has  been  made,  Lightfoot 
shows  that  we  cannot  regard  the  passage  as  the  work  of  an 
interpolator)  ;  "  only  as  it  is  said  in  these  scriptures.  Be  ye 
angry  and  sin  not,  and  Let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon  your 
wrath!'  In  Eph.  iv.  26  we  have  exactly  the  same  com- 
bination of  Ps.  iv.  4,  with  the  words  which  here  succeed 
the  quotation  from  the  Psalm.  It  is  most  improbable  that 
Polycarp  is  here  combining  Deut  xxiv.  1 5  with  Ps.  iv.  4, 
since  the  passage  in  Deuteronomy  reads  thus  :  "In  his  day 
{i.e.  of  the  hired  servant)  thou  shalt  give  him  his  hire, 
neither  shall  the  sun  go  down  upon  it."  ^  But  even  if  St. 
Polycarp  was  thus  quoting  together  these  two  Old  Testament 
passages,  it  would  remain  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  the 
writer  of  our  Ephesians  should  have  combined  together  the 
same  two  passages,  and  that  he  should  have  introduced 
the  same  alterations  to  make  any  real  connection. 

It  should  also  not  be  forgotten  that  in  this  one  short 
Epistle  of  St.  Polycarp's  which  we  possess,  he  shows  acquaint- 
ance with  no  less  than  eight  other  of  the  Epistles  attributed 
to  St.  Paul.  "  Here,"  writes  Dr.  Hort,  "  there  are  more 
distinct  quotations  from  the  New  Testament  than  in  any 
previous  writing,  and  they  include  two  from  our  Epistle." 

'  So  Lightfoot  and  Weiss.  Hort,  u.s.,  writes,  "  We  must  feel  sure  that 
so  little  obvious  a  thought  can  have  come  only  from  Eph.  v.  25." 
On  the  force  of  the  evidence  from  Ignatius  and  Polycarp,  see  N'ew 
Testameftt  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  pp.  69,  93. 

2  Even  if  Polycarp  makes  two  quotations,  the  second  points  to  our 
Ephesians. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     97 

Moreover,  whilst  we  can  thus  refer  to  the  remarkable 
acquaintance  of  St.  Polycarp  with  so  many  Pauline  letters, 
we  can  also  refer  to  the  striking  circumstance  that  Hermas 
gives  us  echoes  of  no  other  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  except  that 
to  the  Ephesians  (with  the  possible  exception  of  i  Cor.  vii. 
40,  and  Hermas,  Mand.,  iv.  4.  2).  Thus  in  Mand.,  x.  2.  2, 
we  find  the  expression  "  to  grieve  the  Spirit,"  with  which 
we  naturally  compare  the  command  in  Eph.  iv.  30.  In 
Sim.,  ix.  13.  5,  it  is  said  of  believers  that  they  become 
"one  spirit,  one  body"  (cf  Eph.  iv.  4).  In  ix.  18.4  we 
read  that  the  Church  shall  be  "  one  body,  one  mind,  one 
faith"  ;  and  again  in  Siin.y  ix.  25.  2,  those  who  receive  the 
Holy  Spirit  are  said  to  walk  always  in  righteousness  and 
truth,   language   which    is   closely   similar    to   that   of  Eph. 

V.  9-' 

When  we  add  to  all  this,  the  testimony  of  the  Muratorian 
canon,  which  places  Ephesians  second  in  the  list  of  Pauline 
Churches,  of  the  Old  Latin  and  Syriac  versions,  of  St. 
Irenaeus,  Tertullian,  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  Jiilicher  (Encycl.  Bibl.,  i.  867,  Art.  "  Ephesians  ") 
should  tell  us  that  the  external  evidence  is  the  best  possible^ 
Moreover,  we  have  during  this  same  second  century  the  ) 
testimony  of  the  Gnostic  sects  and  leaders.  According  to  j 
Hippolytus  the  Naasenes,  Basilides,  Valentinus,  may  be 
quoted  to  this  effect,  and  so  Ptolemaeus  according  to 
Epiphanius.  It  seems  to  be  fairly  certain  that  the  Valentin- 
ians  quoted,  and  possibly  commented  upon,  Eph.  iii.  4-18, 
as  Scripture,  and,  this  being  so,  it  is  natural  to  include  the 
founder  of  the  school  as  a  possessor  of  the  same  knowledge, 
especially  when  we  bear  in  mind   that  the  Epistle  found  a 

^  These  references  are  from  Weiss,  Einleitung  in  das  N.T.,  p.  36, 
3rd  edit.;  and  see  also  Hort,  u.s.  p.  115,  who  speaks  of  reasonably 
certain  borrowings. 

*  Hort  {u.s.  p.  118)  writes,  "  It  is  all  but  certain  on  this  evidence  that 
Ephesians  was  in  existence  by  about  95  A.D.,  quite  certain  that  it  was 
in  existence  by  about  fifteen  years  later,  or  conceivably  a  little  more." 

7 


98      TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

place    in    Marcion's   canon,   and    that    the    question    of   its 
destination  was  examined  by  him.^ 

That  the  force  of  the  external  testimony  is  making 
itself  felt  can  scarcely  be  denied,  and  it  has  evidently 
contributed  to  the  open  mind  with  which  both  Jiilicher 
and  Harnack  now  regard  the  authorship  of  this  Epistle. 
Harnack  frankly  admits  that  the  difficulty  in  attributing 
Ephesians  to  Paul  is  materially  lessened  if  we  assign 
Colossians  to  his  pen  ;  but  he  is  still  in  agreement  with 
Jiilicher  in  his  Introductioji  and  article  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.^ 
that  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  acceptance  of  the  Pauline 
authorship  is  to  be  found  in  such  passages  as  ii.  20,  iii.  5, 
iv.  II.  '' 

In  the  passage  iv.  11  St.  Paul  gives  us  an  enumeration 
of  Church  officers  which  is  said  to  be  at  variance  with  the 
enumeration  in  i  Cor.  xii.  28,  xiv.  But  if  we  look  at  the 
two  lists  we  shall  see  that  in  both  Epistles,  Apostles  and 
Prophets  are  placed  first.  In  i  Corinthians  these  are 
followed  by  teachers,  whilst  in  Ephesians  we  read  of 
evangelists,  pastors,  and  teachers. 

But  if  St.  Paul  is  in  this  latter  case  writing  a  circular 
letter,  it  was  quite  natural  that  he  should  mention  the 
evangelists,  in  whom  we  may  probably  see  men  who  went 
from  place  to  place  preaching  the  Gospel  and  the  facts  upon 
which  it  was  based,  preparing  the  way  for  the  pastors  and 
teachers,  who  were  not  missionaries,  but  shepherds,  watching 
over  and  feeding  the  flock  assigned  to  their  peculiar  care. 
Nor  is  it  strange  that  St.  Paul  in  his  later  Epistle  should 
end  his  list  as  he  does.  He  is  laying  stress  upon  the  edifying 
of  the  Church  ;  whereas  the  gifts  which  are  mentioned  in 
I  Corinthians  are  concerned  not  so  much  with  teaching  as 
with  action,  with  working.  There  certainly  can  be  no 
ground  for  supposing  that  any  omission  in  Ephesians  of 
the  gifts  described  in  i  Cor.  xii.  is  a  mark  of  a  later  com- 
'  See  Jacquier,  Histoire  des  Livres  du  N.T.,  p.  302. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT     99 

position  than  the  period  of  Paul's  life,  as  if  all  such  spiritual 
gifts  had  then  ceased.  _, 

In  addition  to  the  remarks  already  made,  we  should  note  | 
that  the  writer  of  Ephesians  speaks  of  Apostles  and  Prophets,  ■ 
and  the  latter  office  at  least  would  carry  with  it  the  habitual 
exercise  of  the  gift  of  prophecy  and  prophetic  inspiration, 
the  other  crifts  which  are  enumerated  in  i  Corinthians  beinsr 
more  occasional,  and  not  requiring  notice  for  the  Apostle's 
immediate  thought  and  purpose. 

And  how  natural,  we  may  note  in  passing,  is  the  reference 
in  the  Ephesian  letter,  which  is  indeed  the  only  New 
Testament  reference  to  the  office  of  "  shepherd  "  by  name 
(iv.  11).  We  recall  how,  in  addressing  the  elders  at  Miletus 
(Acts  XX.  28)  St.  Paul  had  bidden  them  take  heed  to  feed 
{i.e.  "  to  shepherd  ")  the  Church  of  God,  "  the  flock  "  over 
which  the   Holy  Ghost  had  made  them  overseers. 

Again,  in  ii.  20  it  is  quite  true  that  the  Church  is 
spoken  of  as  built  upon  the  foundation  of  Apostles  and 
Prophets,  Christ  Jesus  Himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone. 
But  there  is  no  disparagement  here  of  Christ  ;  and  if  there 
is  any  serious  difficulty  at  all,  the  difficulty  is  certainly  not 
avoided  by  saying  that  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul  would  be  more 
likely  to  use  such  language  than  one  who  could  himself  claim  / 
the  title  of  an  Apostle.  Moreover,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Christ  Jesus  is  here  spoken  of,  not  as  the  corner-stone 
of  the  foundation,  but  of  the  building,  and  that  He  is  at 
once  differentiated,  as  it  were,  from  Apostles  and  Prophets  by 
the  emphatic  pronoun  Christ  Jesus  Himself,  and  that  in 
reality  the  corner-stone  was  reckoned  to  be  of  the  greatest 
importance,  as  holding  together  both  walls  and  foundations. 

Perhaps    the    passage    iii.    5    presents    a    more  apparent! 
difficulty  where  the  writer  speaks  of  the  mystery  which  in 
other  generations  was  not   made   known    unto   the   sons   of 
men,  as  it  had  now  been  revealed  unto  His  Holy  Apostles  and 
Prophets.      Here,  it  is  alleged,  we  have  a  manifest  proof  of 


100    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

a  later  age  ;  for  how  could  the  Apostle  describe  himself  by 
the  epithet  "  holy  "  ? — whereas  the  veneration  of  his  followers 
might  easily  ascribe  the  attribute  of  holiness  to  him.  But 
in  the  first  place  it  is  well  to  consider  the  context  in  which 
the  Apostle  places  the  term  in  question.  And  then  it 
appears  reasonable  enough  to  maintain  that  St.  Paul  uses 
the  term  of  himself,  as  of  others  who  were  consecrated  to  be 
the  teachers  of  a  new  revelation,  in  contrast  with  the  "  sons 
of  men  "  of  former  generations  to  whom  no  such  revelation 
had  been  vouchsafed.^ 

Moreover,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  word  for  "  holy  " 
is  the  habitual  title  throughout  the  New  Testament  for  all 
baptized  Christians,  and  the  word  might  undoubtedly  be 
used  of  persons  consecrated  to  a  sacred  office,  as,  e.g:,  "  holy 
prophets  "  (Luke  i.  70,  Acts  iii.  21).^ 

If  a  further  objection  is  urged,  as  specially  by  Jijlicher,  on  / 
the  ground  that  the  Apostle  here  refers  to  the  holy  Apostles, 
as  if  to  all  the  Apostolic  college  a  revelation  had  been  given 
of  the  mystery  which  had  been  his  own  special  teaching,  viz. 
the  co-equality  of  the  Gentiles  with  the  Jews  in  the  gospel 
of  salvation  and  in  the  Christian  Church,  we  must  not  forget 
that  long  before  St.  Paul  had  been  imprisoned  in  Rome,  the 
pillar  Apostles,  James,  Cephas,  and  John,  had  "  perceived  the 
grace  that  had  been  given  to  him,"  and  that  he  had  been 
entrusted  with  the  gospel  of  the  circumcision  (Gal.  ii.  8-9).^ 

'  Lock,  Art.  "  Ephesians,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  i.  716;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  T.  K.  Abbott,  u.s.  p.  81. 

2  See,  further,  the  Dean  ofWestminster,  Ephesians,  p.  178  ;  not  the 
Apostle's  holiness,  but  God's  hallowing  is  in  question  ;  also  Lock, 
Art.  "  Ephesians,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  i.  717. 

»  With  regard  to  these  several  objections,  we  may  quote  the  judgment 
of  a  writer  who  will  not  be  accused  of  any  bias  in  favour  of  the  Epistle, 
Dr.  Moffatt,  in  his  Historical  Nezv  Testament  (p.  226,  2nd  edit.), 
"  Even  if  one  refuses  the  highly  probable  conjecture  that  ayi'otr  is  a 
gloss,  the  crucial  difficulty  raised  by  the  apparently  objective  and 
collective  references  to  '  Apostles  '  (ii.  20,  iii.  5),  assuming  the  text  to 
be  uncorrupted,  is  partly  eased  by  passages  like  i  Cor.  ix.  5,  xii.  28, 
and  Rom.  xvi.  7." 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT    loi 

Further  objections  are  raised  from  the  side  of  internal  ' 
evidence  on  the  ground  of  the  Gnostic  terms  in  the  Epistle. 
But  the  edge  of  this  objection  is  turned  to  a  very  con- 
siderable extent  by  the  growing  acknowledgment  of  the 
Colossian  Epistle.  Thus  the  terms  nXy^pcofjia,  yeueai,  atw^'es, 
find  a  place  in  both  Ephesians  and  Colossians,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  fact  that  these  terms  are  manifestly  employed  in 
a  less  technical  sense  in  the  two  Epistles  than  that  which 
characterised  their  use  by  the  Gnostic  schools  of  a  later  date.^ 

Much  has  also  been  made  of  the  frequent  recurrence  of 
the  term  "  the  heavenlies,"  which  does  not  occur  in  Colossians, 
and  of  its  localised  use,  for  the  most  part,  at  all  events,  in 
the  Ephesian  Epistle.  But  in  a  letter  in  which  St.  Paul's 
thoughts  are  so  plainly  fixed  upon  the  ascended  Christ,  who 
had  passed  to  His  home  in  glory,  nothing  was  more  natural, 
whilst  in  the  great  Christological  passage  in  Phil.  ii.  lo  we 
have  a  use  of  the  word  for  "  heavenly"  which  certainly  affords 
a  manifest  point  of  contact  with  its  use  in  Ephesians. 

Again,  it  is  urged  that  the  angelology  of  the  Ephesians  is 
much  more  developed  than  it  is  elsewhere.  But  much  the 
same  development  is  found  in  Colossans  (cf,  e.^:,  Eph.  i.  21 
with  Col.  i.  16),  as  compared  with  the  language  of  earlier 
Epistles ;  and  it  is  most  probable  that  in  Colossians  and 
Ephesians  St  Paul  is  not  describing  objective  realities,  but 
rather  repeating  subjective  opinions,"  i.e.  he  is  insisting  upon 
the  fact  that  all  these  speculations,  whatever  element  of  truth 
they  might  contain,  were  not  worth  a  moment's  serious  con- 
sideration in  comparison  with  the  exalted  and  unique  place 
of  Christ  in  the  Church,  in  the  universe,  in  relation  to  God.^ 

^  Sabatier,  DApotre  Paul,  ii.  246,  3rd  edit.  ;  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
Art.  "  Ephesians,"  Smith's  B.D.,  \?  956. 

^  So  Abbott,  Ephesians,  p.  32,  endorsing  strongly  Lightfoot's  view. 
See  also,  to  the  same  effect,  Inge,  "  The  Mystical  Element  in  St. 
Paul's  Theology,"  Expositor,  p.  122,  August,  1896. 

^  Jacquier,  u.s.  p.  308  ;  Findlay,  Art.  "Paul,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  iii.  ; 
and  reference  may  be  made  to  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  pp.  257-61. 


102     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Indeed,  the  angelology  of  the  Ephesian  letter  follows 
quite  naturally  upon  the  letter  to  Colosse;  i.e.  in  the  former 
the  controversy  as  to  the  worship  of  angels  is  not  pointedly 
alluded  to.  It  is,  as  it  were,  in  the  background  ;  but  we  can 
still  see  a  reference  to  it  in  the  phraseology  of  the  Apostle 
(cf,  Eph.  i.  21,  iii.  lo,  vi.  12  ;  Enoch,  Ixi.  10). 

In  the  same  manner  many  allusions  in  the  Ephesian 
letter  may  be  traced  to  other  subjects  prominent  in 
Colossians  ;  e.g.  to  the  need  of  a  deeper  knowledge  in  the 
Church  of  the  wisdom  and  power  and  riches  of  Christ,  a 
knowledge  which  would  be  a  protection  against  intellectual 
error,  and  would  break  the  force  of  every  wind  of  doctrine 
and  the  craftiness  and  sleight  of  men  (Eph.  i.  17-18,  iv. 
13-14;  Col.  i.  9,  ii.  2-3,  iii.  10).^  ^ 

And  thus  we  may  be  led  to  a  consideration  of  the  relation- 
ship between  the  two  Epistles,  Colossians  and  Ephesians.  f 
And  here  it  is  refreshing  to  note  the  admission  of  Jiilicher 
to  the  effect  that  the  orthodox  contention  that  the  two  letters 
were  written  by  the  same  writer  and  within  a  short  period 
of  each  other,  goes  far  to  explain  the  phenomena  presented 
by  the  two  documents. 

The  frequent  verbal  coincidences  between  Colossians  and 
Ephesians,  even  in  points  in  which  the  phraseology  is  a 
matter  of  indifference,  are  intelligible,  he  thinks,  only  on 
the  assumption  that  one  letter  was  written  when  Paul's 
mind  was  still  full  of  the  thoughts  and  expressions  of  the 
other,  unless  we  are  prepared  to  see  here  a  case  of  deliberate 
imitation  of  a  later  writer,  who  undoubtedly  wished  to  pass 
himself  off  for  Paul. 

It  must,  of  course,  be  remembered  that  in  spite  of  this, 
Jiilicher  still  hesitates  to  refer  Ephesians  to  Paul.  That  is 
to  say,  he  leaves  the  final  judgment  on  this  question  still 
open ;    but    even    after    pointing   out   that   the    number    of 

•  Findlay,  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  p.  175;  Lock,  ti.s.  p.  715.  See, 
too,  Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  359-60. 


.J 


EPISTLES   OF  THE   FIRST   IMPRISONMENT    103 

hapaxlegomena  in  Ephesians  is  astonishingly  large/  he  goes 
on  to  say,  "  At  the  same  time  the  Epistle  has  a  number  of 
characteristically  Pauline  expressions,  including  some  that 
do  not  occur  in  Colossians,  and  at  every  step  genuinely 
Pauline   turns  of  thought  are  recalled." 

It  is  disappointing,  therefore,  to  note  that  Jiilicher,  although 
with  much  more  hesitation  than  earlier  adverse  critics, 
regards  the  view  that  a  Pauline  Christian  is  writing  the 
letter  about  A.D.  90,  and  writing  to  put  in  a  plea  for  the 
catholicity  of  the  Church  as  open  to  Jew  and  Gentile  alike, 
in  the  name  and  meaning  of  Paul,  as  free  from  any  serious 
difficulty.  But  is  it  so  ?  Surely  not.  In  the  first  place 
we  are  dealing  not  with  an  anonymous  writing,  but  with  an 
Epistle  in  which  the  claim  of  the  writer  to  be  no  other  than 
St.  Paul  is  unhesitatingly  and  unmistakably  affirmed,  and 
the  Pauline  authorship  may  fairly  be  said  to  be  knit  into 
the  very  fabric  of  the  letter  (Lock).^ 

Moreover,  it  becomes  quite  impossible  to  admit  that  a 
letter  which  had  apparently  made  such  an  impression  upon 
St.  Clement  of  Rome  and  St.  Ignatius  had  only  come  into 
existence  a  few  years  previous  to  the  date  of  the  undoubted 
letters  of  those  writers. 

But,  further,  this  statement  under  consideration  seems  to 
allow  that  the  development  in  Ephesians  was  quite  natural 
in  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul,  but  quite  the  reverse  in  the  lifetime 
of  the  Apostle  himself.      But  why  so  ?  ^      For  it  is  evident 

^  This  number,  however,  has  been  exaggerated  (cf.  Bishop  of 
Exeter,  Art.  "  Ephesians,"  Smith's  B.D.,  i.^  955  ;  and  Jacquier,  u.s. 
p.  303  ;  and  Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  355. 

^  The  view  of  Von  Dobschiitz  {^Christian  Life  in  the  Primitive 
Church,  p.  176,  E.T.),  that  Ephesians  is  most  intelligible  as  the  work 
of  a  profound  Christian  thinker  whom  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Colossians 
had  excited  to  such  thoughts,  seems  to  labour  under  the  same  difficulties 
as  that  of  Jiilicher. 

^  Weiss,  Fre'^ent  State,  etc.,  p.  56  :  "  When  recent  criticism,  at  least 
in  the  case  of  the  majority  of  its  representatives,  carries  the  composition 
of  the  letter  back  into  the  first  century,  assuming,  however,  that  a 


I04    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

that  this  objection  places  a  limit  upon  the  development  of 
St.  Paul's  thought  which  is  quite  arbitrary,  and  increasingly- 
difficult  to  maintain,  if  Colossians  is  admitted  to  have  come 
from  him. 

In  the  Colossian  Epistle  the  Apostle  had  been  meeting  a 
special  danger,  and  in  the  Ephesian  Epistle,  as  we  have  seen, 
there  are  apparently  references  to  the  points  of  anxiety  in 
the  earlier  Epistle.  But  Ephesians,  as  is  now  frequently  held, 
was  not  only  a  circular  letter,  but  it  was  probably  directed 
in  the  first  place  to  Ephesus  itself,  the  centre  of  Gentile 
Christianity  in  the  great  Roman  province  of  Asia,  from 
which  the  contents  would  easily  circulate  throughout  the 
neighbouring  Christian  Ecclesiae. 

And  St.  Paul,  when  writing,  has  realised  his  great  desire, 
that  of  seeing  Rome,  and  with  the  fulfilment  of  that  desire 
there  had  come  a  fresh  sense  not  only  of  the  greatness  of 
the  city,  but  of  the  empire  ;  the  thought,  too,  of  the  way 
in  which  the  empire  had  grown,  of  its  manifold  life,  of  its 
visible  unity,  under  one  head  and  source  of  authority.  And 
with  all  this  he  would  have  compared,  and,  not  only  so,  he 
would  have  contrasted,  the  Christian  Church,  its  greatness 
now  that  it  had  spread  from  the  upper  room  and  had  found 
a  home  in  the  great  capital  of  the  world,  a  greatness  based 
upon  its  teaching  of  a  crucified  Lord,  upon  its  endurance  as 
"  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,"  upon  its  citizenship  in  the 
heavens,  and  its  bond  of  unity  in  the  Person  of  One  in 
whom  there  was  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  barbarian,  Scythian, 
bondman,  freeman  (Col.  iii.  ii). 

Already  St.  Paul  had  spoken  to  the  Ephesian  elders  of  a 
kingdom  and  of  an  inheritance  of  which  he  had  testified  to 
Jew  and  Greek  alike,  of  a  Church  which  God  had  purchased 

disciple  of  the  Apostle  might  have  been  its  author,  it  surrenders  there- 
with all  definite  standards  by  which  one  can  decide  whether  this  trans- 
formation could  not  have  taken  place  in  the  time  of  Paul  and  in  his 
own  person." 


EPISTLES   OF  THE   FIRST   IMPRISONMENT    105 

with  His  own  blood  (Acts  xx.  21,  25,  28,  32)  ;  already  he 
had  spoken  to  them  of  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  that 
manifold  wisdom  which  through  the  Church  was  to  be  made 
more  widely  known  (Acts  xx.  27  ;  Eph.  iii.  10)  ;  already, 
in  still  earlier  days,  he  had  spoken  to  the  Athenians  of  the 
God  who  had  made  of  one  every  nation  of  men  for  to  dwell 
on  all  the  face  of  the  earth  (Acts  xvii.  26)  ;  and  in  that  same 
God  who  created  all  things  had  been  hid  the  mystery  now 
revealed  (Eph.  iii.  10),  that  the  Gentiles  should  be  fellow 
heirs  of  the  same  divine  inheritance  and  fellow  members  of 
the  same  spiritual  body.  Thus,  and  on  these  truths,  the 
Apostle  had  mused.  What  wonder  that  in  Rome  the  fire 
kindled,  and  that  he  spake  with  his  tongue,  as  the  glowing 
vision  of  the  Church,  manifold,  like  the  divine  wisdom,  and 
yet  one  in  Christ  who  was  Himself  the  wisdom  and  the 
power  of  God,  passed  before  his  eyes — the  fulness  of  Him 
who  filleth  all  in  all. 

Is  there  anything  here  unnatural  in  the  development  of 
St.  Paul's  thought  ?  Surely  not.  Let  us  look  at  one  or 
two  points  more  closely. 

The  German  writer  Von  Soden,  who  has  given  us  what  is 
perhaps  the  most  notable  criticism  from  an  adverse  point  of 
view,  maintains  that  behind  the  ideal  greatness  of  the  Church 
all  particular  Churches  had  entirely  vanished  for  the  author 
of  Ephesians.  The  image  of  the  body  which  Paul  uses  most 
frequently  of  a  local  Church  is  in  Ephesians  exclusively  and 
frequently  employed  of  Christianity.^  But  it  is  noticeable 
that  Von  Soden  himself  points  out  that  twice  in  Colossians 
the  word  "  body  "  is  used  in  another  and  wider  sense  than 
that  of  a  merely  local  Church  and  as  he  allows  Colossians 
to  be  the  work  of  St.  Paul,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  the 
Apostle  could  not  have  used  the  imagery  of  the  body  in  a 
wider  sense  in  Ephesians,  as  he  had  already  done  in 
Colossians. 

>  Der  Brief  an  die  Colosser,  p.  91,  2nd  edit. 


io6    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

But  if  this  ideal  greatness  of  the  Church   was  prominent 
in  St.  Paul's  thoughts  in  the  Ephesian   letter,  what  was  more 
natural    than    that    he    should    dwell    upon   the  relation   of 
the  Church  to  Christ,  or,  rather,  the  relation  of  Christ  to  it  ? 
So  far    from    this  being  strange,    nothing    would    be  more 
likely.      In  his  eagerness  to  prove  his  point.  Von  Soden  seems 
scarcely  aware  of  the  force  of  his  own   admissions.      Thus 
he   allows   that    the    characteristic    Pauline    expression    "  in^i 
Christ,"   as  also  its  cognate  and  closely  similar  expressions, 
are   found    in   this    Epistle   asMnarking   the    condition    and     , 
activity  of  every  Christian  in  every  kind  of  human  relation-   X 
ship  ;  that  the  future,  no  less  than  the  present,  is  altogether 
summed    up    in   Christ,  even  as  it  was  preordained  in  HinO 
But   all   this,  we  are  assured,  is  only  incidental.      What  the 
Apostle  expressly  and  in  detail  -is  careful    and    anxious  to 
represent  is  the  relation  of  Christ  to  the  Church.      But  if  the 
Apostle  sees  all  things  summed  up  in  Christ,  what  was  more 
natural  than  that  we  should  find  him  bringing,  as  it  were,  all  "\    ^ 
things  under  that  same  formula  "  in  Christ  "  ? 

And  so  the  Church,  like  each  individual  Christian,  is 
regarded  as  inseparable  from  Christ ;  it  has  its  being  "  in 
the  Lord,"  "in  Christ  Jesus"  (cf  ii.  21,  iii.  21). 

In  perfect  harmony  with  all  this,  it  is  surely  not  sur- 
prising that  we  should  find  the  formula  "  in  Christ "  and 
kindred  expressions  employed  in  Ephesians  more  frequently 
than  in  any  other  Epistle.  Thus  Deissmann  finds  the 
formula  under  consideration  no  less  than  thirty-five  times. 
Again,  it  is  urged  that  the  whole  estimation  of  the  Church 
from  the  point  of  view  which  regards  it  as  made  up  of  a 
union  of  Jew  and  Gentile  is  peculiar,  and  different  from  the 
conception  which  we  should  expect  from  St.  Paul,  and  that 
St.  Paul  never  represents  the  union  of  Jew  and  Gentile  as 
the   aim    and    purpose  of  the   work  of  Christ  in   the  same 

•  Dze  7ieutest.  Formel  "in  Christo  Jesu,'^  p.  2.  On  the  naturalness 
of  the  expectation  of  the  Parousia,  cf.  Abbott,  Ephesians,  p.  xx. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT    107 

manner  as  it  is  presented  to  us  in  the  Ephesian  Epistle. 
But  at  least  we  may  say  that  the  breaking  down  of  the 
barrier  between  Gentile  and  Jew  was  St.  Paul's  favourite 
doctrine.  We  have  a  parallel  to  his  attitude  in  the  Ephesian 
Epistle  in  Rom.  xi.  17-24 ;  it  is  indeed  the  consideration 
of  this,  amongst  other  close  parallels,  which  has  led  to  the 
remark  that  the  undesigned  coincidences  between  Ephesians 
and  Romans  present  the  strongest  argument  for  the  Pauline 
authorship.^  Moreover,  St.  Paul  was  looking  back  over  the 
incidents  of  a  long  battle,  and  now  that  the  victory  was  won 
after  a  long  and  hard  struggle,  he  could  rejoice  with  a 
natural  joy  in  the  proclamation  of  peace,  and  in  the  recon- 
ciliation through  the  Cross  of  Him  who  had  slain  the  enmity 
thereby. 

Certainly  it  is  strange  that  Von  Soden  should  argue  that 
the  writer's  thoughts  about  the  death  of  Christ  are  different 
from  those  of  St.  Paul,  and  that  the  death  is  not  regarded 
by  him  in  the  same  light  as  by  St.  Paul.  But  when  Von 
Soden  quotes  in  defence  i.  15 — ii.  10,  and  says  that  in  this 
passage,  whilst  reference  is  made  to  the  resurrection  and  the 
whole  work  of  salvation,  yet  the  death  of  Christ  is  not 
regarded,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  two  or  three  times  the  death 
is  associated  with  the  resurrection,  and  that  the  death, 
resurrection,  and  exaltation  of  Christ  are  shared  by  Christians 
as  by  members  who  are  such  in  virtue  of  their  union  with 
the  Head,  and  that  a  few  verses  later  in  the  same  chapter 
we  read,  "  But  now  in  Christ  Jesus  ye  that  once  were  far 
off  are  made  nigh  in  the  blood  of  Christ"  (ii.  13). 

Indeed,  it  is  much  truer  to  say  that  the  historical  cause 
of  redemption  is  always  found  in  the  expiatory  death  of 
Christ,  and  that  this  is  so  in  Ephesians  and  Colossians, 
equally  as  in  the  earlier  Epistles  (cf.  Eph.  i.  7,  ii.  13,  16, 
and  Col.  ii.  14-15). 

It  is  certainly  strange  that  men  should  object  that  in 
^  Lock,  Art.  "  Ephesians,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  i.  717. 


io8     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

this  Ephesian  Epistle  Christ  occupies  a  predominant  place 
which  He  does  not  occupy  elsewhere,  especially  in  the 
representation  of  His  work  in  relation  to  the  universe. 
But  first  of  all  it  must  be  again  borne  in  mind  that  in 
the  Colossian  Epistle  we  have  the  same  great  aim,  viz.  to 
extend  the  reign  of  Christ,  to  promote  His  reign  in  heaven,  i 
and  on  the  earth  and  under  the  earth  (Eph.  i.  lo,  21-2  ; 
Col.  ii.  15).  And,  as  before  remarked  in  other  connections, 
it  is  quite  justifiable  to  find  at  least  the  germs  of  these 
thoughts  in  i  Cor.  viii.  6,  and  to  maintain  that  if  Paul  could 
write  Col.  i.  16,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  he  could  not  write 
Eph.  i.  7,  10  (cf  also  i  Cor.  xv.  27  ;   Eph.  i.  22). 

So,  again,  in  Rom.  viii.  19-22,  Christ  is  "  the  agent  of 
a  cosmic  redemption  "  ;  and  we  have  to  remember  in  this 
connection  the  influence  which  current  Jewish  apocalyptic 
literature  may  have  had  on  St.  Paul's  cosmology,  no  less 
than  on  his  eschatology,  and  that  this  influence  may  have 
had  a  place  in  the  wide  conception  and  boundless  signifi- 
cance attaching  to  our  Lord's  redemptive  work  in  Colossians 
and  Ephesians  alike.^ 

So,  too,  with  reference  to  the  allegation  that  in  Ephesians 
we  have  "  the  Church,"  but  elsewhere  some  local  church,  it 
may  perhaps  be  noted  that  in  such  passages  as  i  Cor.  xv.  9, 
Gal.  i.  13,  we  have  the  term  used  in  a  collective  sense,  and 
again  in  an  abstract  sense,  i  Cor.  xii.  28  (Jacquier,  ii.s. 
p.  309). 

But,  further,  it  may  be  safely  said  that  many  of  the 
differences  between  Colossians  and  Ephesians,  so  emphasised 
by  Von  Soden,  would  be  very  considerably  diminished,  even 
if  they  were  not  removed  altogether,  by  bearing  in  mind 
the  different  circumstances  which  each  Epistle  was  specially 
designed  to  meet.  The  imagery  of  the  body,  e.g.  irT 
Eph.  iv.  16,  is  evidently  introduced  to  represent  the  mutual^ 
relation  of  Christians  to  each  other  ;  in  Col.  ii.  19  the  same 
•  See,  especially,  Bacon,  Introd.  to  the  N.T.,  pp.  119-20. 


EPISTLES    OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT    109 

imagery  is  introduced  to  represent  more  clearly  the  position 
of  Christ.  But  this  is  exactly  what  might  be  expected  in 
view  of  the  different  object  of  the  two  letters.  And  whilst 
it  is  quite  possible  to  suppose  that  the  same  writer  would 
transfer  a  metaphor  from  one  object  to  another,  it  is  not 
so  easy  to  see  why  a  forger  writing  Ephesians  and  wishing 
to  imitate  Colossians  should  act  so  boldly. 

Certainly  it  is  urged  that  whilst  both  letters  give  us  a 
glimpse  into  the  relationship  of  Christ  to  the  universe,  this 
reference  is  occasioned  in  the  Colossian  Epistle  by  questions 
raised  touching  the  moral  and  religious  aspect  of  the 
Christian  life,  which  give  it  a  real  significance  ;  whilst  in 
Ephesians  it  simply  serves  to  crown  the  idea  of  the  Church 
(Von  Soden,  21.S.  p.  97). 

But  here  again  it  is  easy  to  see  that  St.  Paul's  triumphant  W 
assertion    of   the    universal    headship    of    Christ    is    closely    1 
connected   with    practical    questions,    which    were    "  burning 
questions "  in   Colosse  ;    it  was  needful,  therefore,  to  insist 
upon  the  fact  that  in  the  physical  and  spiritual  world  alike 
Christ  was  the  one  Lord,  and  to  protest  against  the  teaching    , 
of   men    who    were    introducing     a    theosophic     and     false 
asceticism  which  threatened  to  hinder  a  pure  and  healthy 
development  of  family  and  social  life. 

Nor  is  it  a  fair  description  to  say  that  in  Ephesians 
the  cosmic  significance  of  the  person  of  Christ  is  merely 
introduced  to  crown  the  idea  of  the  Church  ;  ^  it  would  be 
much  nearer  the  mark  to  say  that,  as  in  Colossians  so  in 
Ephesians,  the  Apostle  is  still  mindful  of  the  unique  dignity 
of  Christ,  and  still  rebukes  the  teaching  derogatory  to  Him, A 
and  that  the  Church  is  regarded  as  deriving  its  fulness  from'j 
Him,  for  this  was  the  eternal  purpose  of  God  to  sum  up  all 
things  in  Christ  (Eph.  i.  10).  Without  Him,  indeed,  the 
Church  was  incomplete,  not  merely   in   idea,  but  in  reality, 

'  See  Bacon,  u.s.  p.  114,  as  against  this  ;  and  also  Zahn,  Etnleitung^ 
i.  330;  Weiss,  Introduction,  i.  345,  E.T. 


no    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

j    because  from  His  fulness  and  by  His  gifts  the  whole  universe 
vf\l    was  filled  (cf   Eph.  i.    lo,    i8,  23  ;  iv.  7,  10;   Col.   i.    16;   ii. 
1^9,  10). 

Once  more  ;  we  remember  how  large  a  portion  of  each 
Epistle  is  occupied  by  the  enumeration  and  enforcement  of 
the  plainest  moral  duties  ;  but  here,  again,  in  each  case  we 
have  with  this  enforcement  a  characteristic  difference.  In 
Colossians  Christians  are  bidden  to  these  duties  by  virtue 
of  the  Headship  of  Christ.  This  they  were  in  danger  of 
disregarding,  on  account  of  the  false  teaching  around  them, 
vainly  puffed  up  with  their  fleshly  mind  ;  they  were  then 
to  rise  with  Christ  to  His  exalted  and  heavenly  life,  far 
above  the  superstitions  and  vices  of  earth  ;  they  were  to  live 
in  union  with  Him  who  was  all  and  in  all. 

But  in  the  Ephesian  Epistle  similar  duties  of  the  same 
practical  kind  are  brought  home  to  men's  minds  by  the 
thought  of  the  unity  in  the  one  body,  of  their  membership 
with  one  another  as  members  of  the  body  of  Christ. 

And  so  it  may  be  said  that  whilst  in  Colossians  the  main 
theme    is    the    vital    connection    with    the    Head,    in    the 
Ephesians  it  is  the  unity  in  diversity  among  the  members.^ 
But  if  the   differences   between   the  two   Epistles   are   thus 
occasioned  by  the  relation  in  each  case  of  the  writer  to  his 
readers,  it  is  no  longer  needful  to  see  in  these  differences'] 
any  argument  against  the  authorship  of  each  Epistle  as  the 
product  of  one  and  the  same  mind.    What  is  the  alternative?' 
It   can  only   be,  as   is   now   generally  admitted,  that   some' 
scholar  of  St.   Paul,   writing  after   his   master's   death,   has 
composed    this    Epistle    in    his    master's    name.       But    how 
difficult  to  imagine  that  a  man  so  versatile,  so  able  to  give 
to    the    world    such   a   splendid    representation    of    Pauline 
thought,  should  have  put  such  a  limitation  upon  his  powers 
as  to  confine  himself  almost  entirely  to  the  brief  contents 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  since  his  borrowings  are 
'  See  the  remarks  of  Abbott,  Ephesiajts,  p.  125, 


EPISTLES    OF   THE   FIRST   IMPRISONMENT    iii 

for  the  most  part  drawn  from  that  Epistle.  There  would 
seem,  too,  to  have  been  no  special  reason  for  his  choice  of 
that  Epistle,  in  face  of  the  fact  that  he  shows  no  special 
knowledge  of  the  particular  and  distinctive  dangers  which 
threatened  the  Colossian  Church  (Abbott,  n.s.  p.  xxiv). 

Lastly,  let  us  look  at  the  estimate  given  us  by  Von  Soden 
of  the  powers  of  this  unknown  writer,  and  then  ask  ourselves 
whether  it  does  not  make  a  less  demand  upon  us  to  believe 
that  we  are  listening  to  St.  Paul  himself,  "  non  ciiivis 
Paulinum  pectus  e-ffingere"  (Bengel).  In  this  Epistle,  says 
Von  Soden  {ji.s.  p.  104),  we  learn  to  know  a  man  who  had 
his  origin  among  the  Christians  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  of 
the  second  generation  ;  a  man  who  kept  both  Paul's  learning 
and  memory  in  truthful  remembrance,  so  far  as  was  possible 
to  one  not  trained  in  the  Rabbinic  schools  or  of  an  equal 
religious  originality  and  energy  ;  a  man  who  united  a  practi- 
cal mind  and  a  clear  outlook  with  a  high  enthusiasm  and 
bold  speculation,  who  was  able  with  impressive  affection  to 
present  that  which  was  a  bond  of  union  to  the  two  opposing 
types  of  Christianity  ;  a  man  of  no  ordinary  rhetorical  gifts, 
of  high  culture,  able  to  grasp  with  fine  intelligence  the 
ethical  consequences  of  the  new  religion,  and  capable,  not 
only  of  receiving  the  thoughts  of  others  and  revising  them 
independently,  but  of  comprehending  and  satisfying  the 
essential   needs  of  his  own  time. 

Surely,  as  we  read  such  words  as  these,  we  cease  to  be 
surprised  that,  in  spite  of  some  difficulties,  the  trend  of 
modern  thought  is  decidedly  favourable  to  the  Pauline 
authorship  of  the  Epistle  before  us,  or  that  we  are  bidden, 
as  an  alternative,  to  find  the  writer  not  further  removed 
from  the  Apostle  than  one  of  the  "  teachers  "  whom  the 
Church  owes  to  the  gift  of  her  ascended  Lord  (Eph.  iv.  li).^ 

From  Ephesians  we  pass  to  the  Philippians,  which,  as  we 
have  already  noted,  is  very  generally  accepted  as  the  work 
of  St   Paul  ;  and  this  acceptance  we  may  justly  claim  as 


112     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

one  of  the  most  important  gains  in  New  Testament  criticism 
since  the  days  of  Baur. 

The  objections  made  by  this  famous  critic  need  not  detain 
us,  since  the  most  strenuous  and  ahnost  sole  opponent  of 
the  Epistle  amongst  later  critics  of  the  first  class,  C.  Holsten, 
regards  the  arguments  of  Baur  as  feeble  or  forgotten.  In 
this  connection  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  Holsten  himself 
acknowledged  that  the  theology  of  the  Epistle  is  in  every 
way  Pauline. 

Many  of  the  objections  which  have  been  raised  against 
Philippians  may  be  answered,  as  in  the  case  of  Ephesians, 
by  a  simple  recollection  of  the  particular  circumstances  in 
which  the  letter  was  written.  And  whether  we  place  Philip- 
pians first  or  last  in  the  order  of  these  four  Epistles  of  the  First 
Captivity  (Moffatt,  Historical  N.T.,  p.  130^),  it  is  quite  plain 
that  we  are  dealing  with  a  letter,  not  with  a  theological 
treatise, — with  a  familiar  letter,  the  outpouring  of  a  heart  full 
of  gratitude,  of  a  love  deep  and  solicitous.^  It  is  equally 
plain  that  in  a  letter  addressed  to  a  simple-minded  people 
like  the  Philippian  converts,  and  to  a  Church  far  removed 
from  the  mystic  speculations  which  were  so  rife  at  Colosse 
and  Ephesus,  there  would  be  no  need  to  discuss  a  heresy 
altogether  strange  and   unknown  ^  ;   it  is  equally  plain   that 

*  See  a  strong  advocacy  of  the  view  that  Philippians  is  the  last  of  the 
four,  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Kennedy,  Expository  Times,  1898.  In  i.  7  the  two 
legal  terms  anoKoyia  and  ^e/3a/wo-ir  seem  to  suggest  that  the  Apostle's 
trial  had  begun. 

-  See  in  this  connection  Von  Soden's  recent  remarks,  Urchristliche 
Literatiirgeschichte,  p.  54  ff. 

^  Dr.  Moffatt  quotes  Ramsay's  remarks  :  "  The  tone  of  Colossians  and 
Ephesians  is  determined  by  the  circumstances  of  the  Churches  addressed. 
The  great  cities  of  Asia  were  on  the  highway  of  the  world,  which 
traversed  the  Lycus  Valley,  and  in  them  development  took  place  with 
great  rapidity.  But  the  Macedonians  were  a  single-minded  people  in 
comparison  with  Ephesus  and  Laodicea  and  Colosse,  lying  further 
away  from  the  great  movements  of  thought.  It  was  not  in  Paul's  way 
to  send  to  Philippi  an  elaborate  treatise  against  a  subtle  speculative 
heresy  which  had  never  affected  that  Oi\\nc\\.''  {ht&  Historical  N.T., 
p.  130,  2nd  edit. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT    113 

a  man  fabricating  a  letter  of  Paul's — say,  between  70-80  A.D. 
— would  scarcely  be  likely  to  make  the  Apostle  tell  the 
Philippians  that  he  trusted  to  come  to  them  shortly,  when 
the  news  of  his  death  must  have  been  established  beyond  a 
doubt.  And  it  is  evident  that  the  force  of  this  consideration 
would  apply  even  more  pointedly  to  the  arbitrary  treatment 
of  this  Epistle  by  Van  Manen,  as,  according  to  him,  it  could 
not  have  been  written  earlier  than  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century,  probably  at  125  A.D.,  in  Syria  or  Asia  Minor, 
from  its  dependence  on  the  four  Haiiptbj'iefe  and  its  origin 
from  the  same  circle,  although  not  later  than  140  A.D.,  as 
Marcion's  testimony  bars  the  way. 

But  here,  as  elsewhere,  Van  Manen  and  other  opponents 
fail  to  take  into  account  the  external  evidence  for  the 
Philippian  letter,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  its  whole 
contents,  with  their  personal  details,  with  their  outpourings 
of  heart  to  heart,  would  seem  to  forbid  any  possible  motive 
for  an  invention.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Haupt  in  the 
latest  edition  of  Meyer  (p.  loi)  should  criticise  Van 
Manen's  attack  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.  so  severely ;  "  every- 
thing in  Philippians  which  resembles  earlier  Epistles  is  an 
imitation,  everything  which  is  not  imitated  betrays  a  later 
date.  In  this  way  any  writing  might  be  proved  to  be 
spurious." 

The   Philippian    letter,   it    is   not    too   much   to  say,   was  / 
certainly   known    to  St.   Clement  of  Rome,   as    also   to   St. 
Ignatius  and  St.  Polycarp. 

If  we  take  the  first  named  and  earliest,  St.  Clement,  we 
may  perhaps  lay  a  stress  upon  the  thought  in  Cor.,  xvi.  2, 
where  Christ  is  spoken  of  as  being  with  them  that  are  lowly 
of  mind,  for  He  came  not  in  arrogance  or  in  pride,  but  in 
lowliness  of  mind.  For  although  an  Old  Testament  pas- 
sage is  cited  (Isa.  liii.),  yet  the  word  denoting  lowliness  of 
mind  seems  to  reflect  not  only  the  thought  but  the  lan- 
guage of  Phil.  ii.  3,  6,  8.     In  Cor.,  xlvii.  2  we  have  the  phrase 


114    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

"  in  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel,"  which,  we  recollect,  finds 
an  earlier  place  in  Phil.  iv.  15  ;  and  there  are  other  likenesses 
which  in  combination  may  perhaps  point  to  a  knowledge 
by  St.  Clement  of  our  letter.  In  the  Epistles  of  St.  Ignatius 
the  evidence  is  more  definite.  Thus  in  Rom.,  ii.  2 
Ignatius  prays  for  nothing  more  than  to  be  poured  out  as 
a  libation  to  God,  while  there  is  still  an  altar  ready,  with 
which  we  may  compare  the  use  of  the  same  striking 
metaphor  in  Phil.  ii.  17.  In  his  letter  to  the  Philadelphians 
(viii.  2)  Ignatius  bids  them  "  do  nothing  in  a  spirit  of  factious- 
ness," an  injunction  which  reminds  us  verbally  of  Phil.  ii.  3, 
a  reminiscence  rendered  more  remarkable  by  the  fact  that 
in  an  earlier  chapter  of  the  same  letter  (i.  i)  Ignatius  has 
the  second  part  of  St.  Paul's  injunction,  "  nor  yet  for  vain 
glory,"  employing  a  word  which  is  found  nowhere  else  in 
the  New  Testament  except  in  Phil.  ii.  3. 

So,  again,  in  writing  to  the  Smyrnasans,  St.  Ignatius 
twice  uses  words  which  sound  like  reminiscences  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistle  ;  e.g.  he  writes  (iv.  2),  "  I  endure  all  things,  seeing 
that  He  Himself  enableth  me,"  a  turn  of  thought  which 
reminds  us  forcibly  of  Phil.  iv.  13,  although  it  is  true  that 
both  the  verbs  are  found  in  other  Epistles. 

The  testimony  of  Polycarp  is  specially  emphasised  by 
Dr.  Zahn,  and  he  justly  thinks  that  this  alone,  as  a  piece  of 
evidence  occurring  in  a  letter  addressed  by  Polycarp  to  the 
same  Philippian  Church,  should  have  protected  our  Epistle 
from  any  suspicion  {Einleitiing,  i.  393),^  for  we  must  bear 
in   mind  that  twice  in  his  letter  St.   Polycarp  reminds  his 

'  Polycarp  knows  apparently  of  more  than  one  letter  to  the  Philip- 
pians.  But  it  is  quite  a  feasible  view  that  the  plural  may  refer  only  to 
one  letter  (Lightfoot,  Philippiaiis,  p.  (42,  and  Moffatt's  Historical 
N.T.,  p.  634),  or  that,  as  Zahn  thinks,  Polycarp  may  have  included  the 
Thessalonian  Epistles  as  addressed  also  to  Churches  of  Macedonia  (cf. 
Meyer-Haupt,  p.  94).  But  with  respect  to  the  use  of  our  Epistle  the 
question  is  one  of  secondary  importance,  and  we  fully  agree  with  Bacon 
{hitrod.,  p.  124)  that  if  more  than  one  letter  had  survived  to  Polycarp's 
day,  it  would  have  survived  to  ours. 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST   IMPRISONMENT    115 

converts  of  the  fact  that  Paul  had  written  to  them  (iii.  i, 
xi.  3). 

The  testimony  of  St.  Polycarp  in  the  contents  of  the 
letter  itself  is  considerable,  and  it  is  somewhat  surprising 
that  B.  Weiss  should  speak  of  the  expression  "  enemies  of 
the  Cross,"  for  whom  Polycarp  begs  the  Philippians  to  pray 
as  the  only  reminiscence  of  our  Epistle.  But  chapter  ix.  2 
gives  us  what  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  a  reminiscence  of 
Phil.  ii.  i6,  as  Lightfoot  holds,  "  being  persuaded  that  all 
these  ran  not  in  vain "  (cf ,  however.  Gal.  ii.  2),  and  the 
opening  words  of  Polycarp's  letter  certainly  remind  us  of 
our  Epistle,  "  I  rejoiced  with  you  greatly  in  our  Lord  "  (Phil, 
iv.  10)1;  and  Lightfoot  again  sees  in  them  an  expression  taken 
from  it.  Again,  when  we  read  that  Polycarp,  in  speaking 
of  the  exalted  Christ,  says  (ii.  i),  "  Unto  whom  all  things 
were  made  subject  that  are  in  heaven  and  that  are  on  the 
earth,"  we  are  at  least  reminded  of  the  language  of  Phil, 
ii.  10,  although  it  must  be  allowed  that  similar  phraseology 
is  found  elsewhere. 

In  the  curious  apocryphal  book  The  Testaments  of  the 
XII.  Patriarchs,  we  have  at  least  two  expressions  which 
remind  us  very  forcibly  of  our  Epistle.  This  curious 
book,  in  its  Jewish  form,  is  placed  earlier  by  Dr.  Charles 
than  has  been  the  case  when  its  Hebrew  origin  has 
been  neglected.  He  derives  its  Jewish  form  from  the 
second  century  B.C.,  whilst  he  supposes  that  the  various 
Christian  interpolations  date  from  the  middle  of  the  second 
Christian  century  and  onwards.  The  two  passages  are  : 
(i)  "The  king  of  heaven  will  appear  on  earth  in  the 
form  of  a  man  "  {iv  [Jiopcjifj  dvOpcoirov ;  Be?i/.,  x.  1.4)  ; 
and  possibly  we  ought  to  read  "  of  a  man  of  humiliation  " 
(jaiTeLvcocreajs  ;  cf  Phil.  iii.  21).  (2)  "Ye  will  see  God  in 
the  fashion  of  a  man  "  (eV  cr^r^/xart  dvOpajnov  ;  Zed.,  ix.  19). 
Here,  however,  the  doctrine  is  probably  Docetic,  and  un- 
doubtedly so    in   Asher,  vii.  9,  "  God  in  the  semblance  of 


ii6     TESTIMONY    OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

man."  It  may  be  that  more  than  one  hand  was  at  work 
in  these  interpolations,  but  they  remind  us  irresistibly  of 
the   language  employed   in   Phil.   ii.    5-6.^ 

In  the  writings  of  Christian  Apologists  there  are  frequent 
thoughts  and  expressions  closely  connected  with  the  thoughts 
and  language  of  our  Epistle,  without  pressing  the  language 
from  Justin  Martyr  and  that  of  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to 
Diognetus,  relating  to  a  heavenly  citizenship  (cf  Phil.  iii.  20). 
Melito  speaks  of  our  Lord  as  "  having  put  on  the  form  of 
a  servant,"  and  Theophilus  of  Antioch  uses  the  phrase 
"  minding  earthly  things  "  (cf.  Phil.  iii.  19)  ;  and  so,  again 
in  speaking  of  things  that  are  "true  and  useful  and  just 
and  lovely,"  the  same  writer  very  probably  had  in  mind 
Phil.  iv.  8,  and  the  word  "  lovely "  (jrpo(T(f)Lk7]<;)  occurs 
nowhere  else  in  the  New  Testament  except  in  this  verse. 

The  testimony  of  heretical  writers  may  also  be  quoted  ; 
e.£:  that  of  the  Sethiani,  who,  according  to  Hippolytus,  found 
a  support  for  their  own  doctrines  in  their  method  of  inter- 
preting Phil.  ii.  6-y  ;  or,  again,  that  of  the  Valentinian 
Cassianus,  who,  according  to  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
appears  to  have  quoted  Phil.  iii.  20.  It  was  contained  in 
the  Apostolico7i  of  Marcion,  and  there  may  be  possibly  a 
reference  to  it  in  the  apocryphal  Acts  of  Thojnas,  27. 
In  the  Muratorian  canon  it  finds  a  place.  St.  Clement 
of  Alexandria  and  Tertullian  refer  to  passages  in  it  as  the 
words  of  Paul,  and  St.  Irenaeus,  who  plainly  knows  of  only 
one  Epistle  of  Paul  to  Philippi,  definitely  quotes  iv.  18  as 
the  words  of  Paul.^ 

Before    we    conclude    this     brief    summary    of    external 

'  See  Art.  "Testaments  of  XII.  Pat."  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  iv. 
(Dr.  Charles  draws  attention  to  the  important  passage  [Benj.^  xi.] 
relating  to  St.  Paul,  with  its  mention  of  the  Apostle's  writings  and 
achievements).  See,  further,  Hibbert  journal,  April,  1905,  and  Dr. 
Charles'  article  on  the  book  before  us. 

^  See  Lightfoot,  Philippians,  p.  76,  and  Jacquicr,  zc.s.  p.  348.  It  may 
be  observed,  in  passing,  that  no  one  repudiates  more  strongly  than  Van 


EPISTLES    OF   THE   FIRST   IMPRISONMENT    117 

evidence,  one  touching  and  pathetic  addition  to  it  may  be 
cited.  The  Christians  of  Vienne  and  Lyons,  writing  in  the 
reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  to  strengthen  their  brethren  in 
the  faith  (about  177  A.D.),  dwell  not  upon  the  sufferings 
of  the  martyrs  in  their  Churches,  but  upon  their  sober- 
mindedness,  their  Christian  spirit,  their  gentleness  and 
humility,  their  refusal  to  be  proclaimed  as  martyrs.  In 
this  letter  one  powerful  incentive  to  the  cultivation  of 
this  spirit  of  humility  is  given  us  in  the  passage  which 
speaks  of  those  who  had  become  imitators  of  Christ,  and 
then  follows  an  exact  quotation  from  Phil.  ii.  6.  "  Who, 
being  in  the  form  of  God,  counted  it  not  a  prize  to  be 
on  an  equality  with  God."  This  reference,  moreover,  is  of 
further  value  in  that  it  shows  how  the  Christians  of  those 
early  days  were  wont  to  derive  the  most  practical  lessons 
from  the  humiliation  and  sufferings  of  their  divine  Lord  and 
Saviour  ;  and  it  will  always  be  of  service  in  the  interpretation 
of  this  difficult  passage  to  remember  that  St.  Paul  himself 
undoubtedly  wrote  it  with  a  practical  purpose  in  view. 
He  is  bidding  his  converts  to  refrain  from  faction  and 
vainglory  ;  he  asks  them  to  act  in  lowliness  of  mind,  and 
then  he  enforces  his  request  by  a  reference  to  the  unique 
and  transcendent  example  of  divine  lowliness  and  con- 
descension (Phil.  ii.  6). 

Attention  has  already  been  drawn  to  the  inconsistency 
of  those  critics  who  credit  St.  Paul  with  this  Christological 
passage,  while  they  refuse  to  him  the  authorship  of  Colossians 
or  Ephesians. 

It  would,  of  course,  be  impossible  to  attempt  an  examina- 
tion of  the  numberless  contributions  which  have  been  made 

Manen  the  view  that  our  Epistle  is  a  piece  of  patchwork  or  a  com- 
bination of  two  or  more  letters.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  he  will 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  partition  theories  of  Volter  and  Clemen, 
although  the  latter  does  not  deny  that  the  two  letters  which  are,  as  he 
thinks,  joined  together,  are  both  the  work  of  Paul.  Cf.  Meyer-Haupt, 
p.  95  ;  and  Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  297. 


ii8     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

to  the  interpretation  of  the  words  and  those  which  follow  ; 
but  one  or  two  things  may  be  said. 

In  the  first  place  there  is  no  justification  for  regarding 
the  passage  as  referring  merely  to  an  ideal  pre-existence 
of  Christ  in  the  idea  or  mind  of  God.  Such  a  thought  is 
not  only  foreign  to  the  plain  practical  bearing  of  the  con- 
text, but  it  is  at  variance  with  the  Apostle's  description. 
You  could  not  ascribe  to  a  pre-existent  idea  conscious 
thought  and  will  ^  ;  and  as  in  2  Cor.  viii.  9,  so  here,  a 
moral  act  and  a  practical  example  are  in  the  Apostle's 
view. 

It  is  significant  and  satisfactory  that  in  the  most  recent 
edition  of  Meyer's  Commentary  Dr.  Haupt,  after  pointing  out 
what  he  regards  as  the  insuperable  difficulties  of  the  passage, 
expresses  the  hope  that  there  will  be  no  revival  of  this 
attempt  to  explain  the  words  by  reference  to  a  so-called  ideal 
pre-existence.  Of  any  attempt  to  regard  the  verse  as  an 
interpolation,  such  as  that  of  Bruckner,  we  need  not  speak  ; 
there   is   nothing    to   support  it,  and  it  is  purely  arbitrary.^ 

'    Witness  of  the  Epistles,"^.  2<^\. 

2  Moffatt,  Historical  N.T.,  p.  635,  2nd  edit. 

In  any  attempt  to  understand  the  words,  it  may  be  fairly  said  that 
great  assistance  will  be  found  in  the  te.xt  and  in  the  marginal  readings 
of  the  R.V. 

Taking  these  as  guides,  St.  Paul,  we  hold,  speaks  of  Christ  Jesus  as 
being,  i.e.  being  originally  in  the  form,  i.e.s'vsx  the  nature,  of  God  ;  and 
although  He  was  so,  accounting  it  not  as  a  prize,  a  thing  to  be  eagerly 
grasped  at  or  retained,  to  be  equal  with  God. 

Then  follows  the  contrast,  a  contrast  obscured  in  the  A.V.,  where  the 
words  "thought  it  not  robbery"  would  mean  that  our  Lord  asserted 
His  claim  of  equality  with  the  Godhead.  But  such  an  assertion  would 
not  fitly  find  a  place  in  the  present  context,  where  an  example  of  self- 
abnegation  and  humility  is  to  be  enforced.  In  the  Letter  of  the 
Churches  of  Vienna  and  Lyons  the  words  are  evidently  used  as  ex- 
pressing our  Lord's  self-surrender  (see  Speaker's  Commentary,  iii. 
620,  in  loco).  "  But,"  i.e.,  on  the  contrary.  He  emptied  Himself  of  His 
glory,  taking  the  nature  (the  same  word  as  is  used  above  of  the 
"  nature  "  of  God)  of  a  bond  servant,  being  made  (in  contrast,  i.e.,  to 
what  He  originally  was,  and  marking  the  entrance  upon  a  new  exist- 
ence) in  the  likeness  of  men  ;  the  plural  being  used  because  Christ  in 


EPISTLES   OF   THE   FIRST    IMPRISONMENT    119 

A  parallel,  indeed,  has  often  been  drawn  between  this  passage 
and  2  Cor.  viii.  9,  and  we  may  say  with  Zahn  that  it 
contains  hardly  more  dogmatic  teaching  than  the  teaching 
in  the  Corinthian  Epistle. 

But  in  each  case  we  have  seen  how  practically  the 
Apostle  raises  the  simplest  duties  of  daily  life  to  a  higher, 
nay,  to  the  highest,  level,  as  partaking  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
as  making  men  sharers  of  the  mind  of  Christ,  who  was 
equal  with  God,  the  mind  of  Him  who  alone  knew  the 
Father. 

In  this  matchless  combination  of  dogmatic  and  practical 
teaching  we  have  again  a  proof  not  only  of  St.  Paul's  true 
excellency  in  word  and  wisdom,  but  also  of  the  central  and 

His  humanity  represents  mankind:  "  He  was  not  mere  man,  as  other 
men,  but  more." 

But  as  the  Apostle  proceeds  we  see  that  the  climax  is  not  yet  reached  ; 
the  punctuation  and  the  conjunction  mark  a  further  stage  in  our  Lord's 
condescension  and  a  further  incentive  to  us  in  His  example. 

"  And  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,"  in  contrast,  again,  to  what 
He  eternally  was.  There  is  no  hint  whatever  in  the  words  of  any 
unreality  in  our  Lord's  humanity,  and  nothing  to  countenance  the 
Docetic  view  which  Marcion  in  early  and  Baur  in  modern  days  sought 
to  discover  in  them.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  whole  passage 
implies  the  contrary  :  "  the  form  of  a  servant  (already)  ascribed  to  the 
Incarnate  One  implies  likeness  to  men  in  their  present  condition  in  all 
possible  respects  ;  for  how  could  one  be  in  earnest  with  the  servant's 
work  whose  humanity  was  in  any  sense  Docetic?"  "He  humbled 
Himself,"  still  subsisting  in  the  form  of  God.  The  act  was  voluntary, 
while  a  further  sign  of  humility  and  surrender  is  marked  in  the  be- 
coming obedient  unto  death,  yea  (R.V.)  the  death  of  the  Cross.  The 
nature  of  a  bondservant  might  have  been  assumed  without  the  death 
of  a  slave,  but  the  cup  of  humiliation  was  drained  to  the  dregs  in  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Cross.*  And  so  we  may  see  how  true  it  is  that  the 
divine  law  which  Christ  enunciated  was  fulfilled  in  His  own  person  : 
"he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted,"  and  the  whole  creation, 
animate  and  inanimate,  joins  in  the  hymn  of  praise  to  Him  who  enters 
once  again,  both  as  His  right  and  as  His  reward,  upon  the  glory  which 
He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was. 

*  See  Gifford,  The  Incarnation,  A  Study  of  Phil.,  ii.  5-11,  in  September  and 
October  of  Expositor,  1896,  and  R,  B.  Drummond,  Apostolic  Teaching  and  Christ's 
Teachings  pp.  232-3  (1900). 


120    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

absorbing  place  which   Christ    filled  in   the  Apostle's  every 
thought/ 

If  he  had  written  in  earlier  days  to  the  Galatians,  "  It  is 
no  longer  I  that  live,  but  Christ  that  liveth  in  me,"  to  the 
Philippians  he  can  say,  "  To  me  to  live  is  Christ,  and  to  die 
is  gain  "  ;  to  the  Colossians  he  speaks  of  "  Christ  who  is  / 
our  hfe,"  with  whom  our  life  is  hidden  ;  whilst  for  the 
Ephesians  his  last  words  are  a  prayer  that  "  grace  may  be 
with  all  that  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  uncorruptness," 
with  a  spiritual  and  eternal  love,  centred  in  Him  whose  love--'] 
passeth  knowledge. 

Men  sometimes  speak  and  write  as  if  the  Church  of 
Christ  was  a  great  social  institution,  a  civilising  agency — 
that  and  nothing  more.  But  the  opening  words  of  the  little 
note  of  St.  Paul  to  Philemon  may  reveal  to  us  that  the 
simplest  acts  of  courtesy  and  the  obligations  of  social  life 
were  what  they  were  for  the  Christian  Apostle,  because  they 
flowed  from  a  divine  strength  and  fellowship  :  "  Grace  to 
you  and  peace  from  God  our  Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  No  wonder  that  Harnack  should  ask,  "  Where 
have  we  another  example  in  history  of  a  religion  intervening 
with  such  a  robust  supernatural  consciousness,  and  at  the 
same  time  laying  the  moral  foundations  of  the  earthly  life 
of  the  community  so  firmly  as  this  message  ?  "  ( W/iat  is 
Christianity  ?  p.  171).^ 

'  Dr.  Chase  thinks  it  probable  that  St.  Paul's  words,  "taking  the 
form  of  a  servant"  (Phil.  ii.  7),  may  allude  to  Isa.  (xlii.  19,  xlviii.  20, 
xlix.  3,  5),  and  his  prophecies  as  to  the  servant  of  the  Lord,  whilst  the 
preceding  and  succeeding  context  in  Philippians  guard  against  any  mis- 
conception. In  the  LXX  the  servant  is  both  rralir  and  hoxiKo^,  so  that  we 
may  have  a  point  of  contact  in  the  Christology  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter 
(cf.  Acts  iii.  13,  26). 

^  Cf.  the  remarks  of  Dr.  Wace  in  Speaker  s  Commentary ,  iii.  765. 


LECTURE    VII 

THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES 

THE  Pastoral  Epistles  are  still  the  most  keenly  disputed 
of  St.  Paul's  letters,  and  that,  too,  after  a  struggle, 
roughly  speaking,  of  a  whole  century.  They  have  been 
called  a  perennial  source  of  difficulty  to  apologetics  ;  but 
it  might  be  as  truly  said  that,  in  spite  of  all  efforts,  the 
writings  still. present  unsolved  problems  to  those  who  refuse 
them  to  St.  Paul. 

We  may  begin  by  stating  the  present  position  of  the 
opponents  of  the  Pauline  authorship  of  the  letters  as  we 
have  them.  "  Critics  generally  admit,"  says  a  representative 
writer  in  the  ranks  of  the  opposition  :  (i)  "  that  fragments 
at  least  of  genuine  letters  of  Paul  to  Timothy  and  Titus  are 
here  present ;  (2)  that  neither  the  regulations  of  Church 
order,  nor,  in  their  general  traits,  the  parties  opposed,  are 
altogether  out  of  relation  to  the  later  Pauline  period  ;  (3)  that 
many  whole  phrases,  not  merely  in  the  epistolary  parts,  but 
even  in  the  portions  regarded  as  interpolated  into  the 
genuine  historical  framework,  are  Pauline,  whether  borrowed 
from  the  primary  canon  or  derived  from  tradition  "  (Bacon, 
Introduction,  p.  128), 

Upon  these  three  statements  one  or  two  remarks  may  be 
made.  In  the  first  place  it  is  something  to  be  told  that  the 
heretics  opposed,  and  the  mode  of  opposition  to  them,  are 
not  altogether  out  of  relation  to  the  last  days  of  St.  Paul's 
career. 


122     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Baur's  chief  attack  against  the  Epistles  was  based  upon 
the  ground  that  they  were  connected  with  heretical  Gnostic 
doctrines  characteristic  of  the  second  century,  and  other 
writers  have  attempted  to  connect  various  passages,  very 
often  very  simple  ones,  with  other  and  similar  doctrinal 
errors.  It  would  now  seem  that  this  line  of  attack  must 
be  modified.      But  to  this  we  shall   return. 

Another  point  is  this :  the  letters,  as  we  have  them, 
contain  interpolations  from,  and  fragments  of,  genuine  letters 
of  Paul,  and  we  are  told  that  the  prevailing  efforts  of  criticism 
are  in  the  direction  of  separating  the  elements  which  may 
have  formed  the  original  letters  from  the  material,  Pauline 
and  otherwise,  interpolated  by  early  Church  editors  in 
adapting  these  private  notes  to  the  public  uses  of  "  ecclesi- 
astical discipline." 

But  if  this  is  to  be  the  future  task  of  criticism,  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  a  boundless  field  is  opened  out  for  the  play  of 
individual  acuteness  and  subjective  fancy.  Thus,  Harnack 
asks  us  to  believe  that  these  three  Epistles  consist,  as  it  were, 
of  three  layers.  We  have:  (i)  Pauline  letters  or  fragments 
of  letters,  which  he  places  as  early  as  59-60  A.D.  ;  (2)  these 
were  worked  over  and  expanded  between  the  years  90-110  ; 
(3)  and  (as  if  the  preceding  strata  were  not  sufficient)  the 
letters  thus  revised  received  further  additions  up  to  some- 
where about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  {Chron.,  i. 
484).  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  in  2  Timothy,  which 
perhaps  lends  itself  most  easily  to  any  process  of  disintegra- 
tion, (i)  the  theories  of  interweaving  of  document  with 
document  are  too  intricate  to  be  probable  ;  (2)  that  no  one 
theory  has  commanded  anything  like  a  common  consent. 

What  could  be  more  arbitrary  than  to  take  such  a  passage 

as  the  first  chapter  of  Titus,  and  to  recognise  in  the  first  six 

'  See,  especially,  Lock,  Art.  "  Pastoral  Epistles,"  Hastings' -5. Z>.,  iv. 
']']'],  and  Belser,  Einleitiuig,  p.  642.  The  best  and  fullest  statement  of  the 
different  attempts  to  break  up  the  Pastorals  is  in  Dr.  Moffatt's  Historical 
N.T.,  pp.  700-4;    but  he  does  not  seem  very  sanguine  as  to  results, 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  123 

verses  a  genuine  Pauline  fragment,  but  to  reject  the  next 
three  verses  (7-9)  as  non-PauHne  ?  Is  there  any  documentary 
evidence,  we  ask,  for  such  a  rejection  ?  None  whatever. 
Upon  what,  then,  is  it  based  ?  Simply  upon  the  pre- 
supposition that  Paul  could  not  mention  "  episcopus  "  and 
presbyter  in  the  same  paragraph.  During  at  least  some  sixty 
to  seventy  years  past  it  would  have  been  possible  to  quote 
a  whole  catena  of  writers  who,  in  their  multitudinous  efforts  to 
separate  Pauline  and  un-Pauline  elements,  have  demonstrated 
the  subjective  and  precarious  nature  of  all  such  attempts. 

Moreover,  these  efforts  of  one  critic  after  another  in  this 
direction  do  not  lighten,  but  rather  complicate,  the  problem 
before  us.  In  the  latest  edition  of  his  Commentary  on  these 
Epistles  (1902),  B.  Weiss  (pp.  68-9)  does  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  the  insertion  of  such  fragments  as  those  supposed 
into  letters  with  the  peculiar  tendency  of  which  these  frag- 
ments have  nothing  to  do,  could  only  be  meant  to  give  the 
latter  the  appearance  of  genuine  Pauline  letters.  But  if  this 
is  so,  these  letters  lose  the  character  of  free  pseudonymous 
productions,  and  become  refined  forgeries. 

But  Professor  Bacon,  in  the  same  connection,  makes  some 

remarks  with  regard   to  Marcion  which  open   up  the  whole 

question  of  the  external  evidence  for  these  Pastoral  Epistles. 

According  to  him,  Marcion  cannot  have  been   ignorant  of 

these  Epistles,  and  he  admits  that  they  were  also  known  to 

St.  Ignatius  and  St.  Polycarp.      He  also  allows  that  Marcion 

would  not  have  scrupled  to  eliminate  anything  obnoxious  to 

his  own  beliefs  from   these  letters,  if  they  had  occupied,  to 

his  mind,  the  same  position  as  the  other  letters  which  he 

accepted.      But  the  fact  that  Marcion  rejected  the  Pastorals 

from  his  canon  at  least  proves  their  existence.      Moreover, 

Marcion    would    not   have   hesitated    to   eliminate    passages 

although  he  assures  us  that  the  various  attempts  agree  in  one  or  two 
passages  at  least  with  a  fair  measure  of  unanimity.  On  McGiffert's 
ingenious  attempts  in  the  same  direction,  see  Dr.  Horton's  criticism, 
Pastoral  Efistles,  pp.  16-19, 


124     TESTIMONY    OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

obnoxious  to  him,  whether  he  placed  these  Epistles  on  the 
same  level  as  the  other  letters  of  St.  Paul  or  not.  He  did 
not  hesitate  to  make  such  eliminations  in  dealing  with  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  and  no  scruples  hindered  him  in 
applying  the  like  treatment  to  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke. 
]\Iarcion  rejected  these  Epistles  not  merely  because  they 
were  private  letters,  for  he  accepted  Philemon,  but  because 
they  were  so  entirely  opposed  to  his  own  heretical  system.^ 
To  say  th;it  he  did  so  because  he  might  well  regard  their 
somewhat  mixed  mass  of  regulations,  exhortations,  and  de- 
nunciations as  on  the  whole  falsely  purporting  to  come  from 
Paul,  is  to  go  beyond  the  evidence  and  beyond  what  is 
required    for    the    attitude    of  iNIarcion. 

But  it  should  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  we  have 
positive  external  evidence  of  the  letters  before  the  time 
of  Marcion.  This  brings  us  to  a  consideration  of  the 
evidence  bearing  upon  the  authorship  from  an  external 
point  of  view.  It  is  sometimes  alleged  that  the  external 
evidence  is  weaker  than  in  the  case  of  any  of  St.  Paul's 
other  letters.  But  where  is  the  proof  of  this  statement  ? 
One  thing  seems  tolerably  certain,  that  these  Epistles  were 
known  to  the  literature  of  the  Sub-Apostolic  age  as  early 
as  any  of  St.  Paul's  letters,  and  that  this  testimony  meets 
us  from  various  quarters.  Let  us  briefly  illustrate  this 
statement. 

In  the  frequently  noted  points  of  contact  with  St.  Clement 
of  Rome,  Holtzmann  could  see  only  indications  of  a  common 
Church  atmosphere,  whilst  Harnack  confesses  himself  unable 
to  decide  definitel>'  how  the  undeniable  relation  between 
the  Pastorals  and  St.  Clement  is  to  be  explained  {Chron., 
i.  4S5).  But  one  or  two  passages  at  least  can  be  fairly 
quoted  by  those  who  maintain  the  priority  of  the  Pastoral 
Letters.      Thus,  when  St.  Clement  speaks  of  those  "  who  are 

'  B.  Weiss.  Die  Briefe  Fault  an  Tim.  und  Titus,  p.  56  (1902)  ; 
Jacquier,  ti.s.  p.  386  ;  Belser,  Einleitung,  p.  631. 


THE    PASTORAL   EPISTLES  12$ 

ready  to  every  good  work  "  i^Cor.,  ii.  7),  we  have  an  almost 
verbal  reminiscence  of  Titus  iii.  i.  And  so  again,  when 
St.  Clement  bids  us  (xxix.  i)  approach  God,  "  lifting  up  pure 
and  undefiled  hands  unto  Him,"  we  are  irresistibly  reminded 
of  I  Tim.  ii.  8,  although  the  phrase  is  admittedly  used  by 
many  writers.^  In  the  so-called  Epistle  of  Barnabas  one 
point  of  connection  is  so  striking,  viz.  that  between  xiv.  6 
and  Titus  ii.  14,  "  having  delivered  us  from  darkness,  to 
prepare  a  holy  people  to  himself,"  that,  according  to  B. 
Weiss,  if  this  one  case  is  admitted,  the  other  reminiscences 
of  Barnabas  may  fairly  be  allowed.^ 

In  the  letters  of  St.  Ignatius  we  find  reminiscences  of 
each  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  as  Holtzmann  appears  to 
admit  {Einleitung,  iii.  291).  For  instance,  Holtzmann 
notes  that  the  word  for  "  refresh  "  (2  Tim.  i.  16),  aVal/<u^et^', 
which  is  found  only  here  in  the  New  Testament,  occurs 
twice  in  the  same  sense  in  Eph.,  ii.  i  and  Sniyr.,  x.  2  ; 
and  the  same  remarkable  use  of  other  words  peculiar  to 
our  Epistles  is  also  found  in  the  Ignatian  letters.^  And  if 
in  Magnesz'ans,  viii.  i,  we  do  not  find  a  direct  quotation, 
there  is  at  least  a  close  and  likely  reference  to  the  false 
teaching  which  consisted  in  old  and  useless  Jewish  fables 
"  Do  not,"  says  Ignatius,  "  be  seduced  by  heterodoxies 
nor  by  fables  (mythic  teachings)  ancient  and  useless. 
For  if  we  still  live  according  to  the  Jewish  law,  we 
confess  that  we   have    not    received    grace,"    the    word   for 

'  See  2^ew  Testament  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers  (Oxford,  1905),  p.  55. 

^  See  B.  Weiss,  u.s.  p.  55,  and  Einleititng,  3rd  edit.  p.  35,  where  he 
refers  not  only  the  above  instances  to  the  use  of  the  Pastorals  by 
Clement,  but  he  points  out  several  other  reminiscences,  and  also 
that  Clement  has  other  favourite  expressions  in  common  with  the 
Pastorals,  and  that  he  has  borrowed  a  number  of  their  peculiarities, 
e.g.  dva^MTTvpelv,  TTKTTOddeis,  Trp6(TKki(ns,  ayayrj,  avocrios,  jibtKvKTos.  Cf. 
also  New  Testament  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers  (Oxford,  1905),  on 
the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  p.  14. 

^  Weiss   notes   eVepoSiSao-xaXfii',  apa^wnvpelv,  avay^v^eiv,  enayyeXKea-daif 


126     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

"  useless "  being   found   in   a   somewhat   similar   context    in 
Titus  iii.  g} 

So,  again,  Holtzmann  points  to  the  manifest  reference 
in  St.  Polycarp's  Epistle  {Phil.,  iv.  i,  to  i  Tim.  vi.  7,  10). 
"  But  the  love  of  money,"  writes  St.  Polycarp,  "  is  the  be- 
ginning of  all  trouble,  knowing  .  .  .  that  we  brought 
nothing  into  the  world,  neither  can  we  carry  anything  out "  ; 
and  to  this  we  may  add  another  noteworthy  reminiscence 
in  Phil.,  ix.  2,  of  2  Tim.  iv.  10,  where  we  have  the  phrase 
"  They  loved  not  the  present  world."  To  these  two  passages 
we  may  add  a  third  parallel,  which  B.  Weiss  admits  to  be 
raised,  with  the  two  instances  just  quoted,  above  all  doubt, 
between  Phil.,  v.  2,  and  i  Tim.  iii.  8,  in  the  directions  to 
the  officers  of  the  Church.^ 

In  commenting  upon  the  evidence  from  the  letter  of 
Polycarp,  Harnack  lays  .stress  upon  the  fact  that  Polycarp 
not  only  knows  the  Pastoral  Epistles  himself,  but  presupposes 
that  his  readers  know  them  ;  and  whilst  in  some  cases  he 
thinks  that  it  may  be  urged  that  Polycarp  may  be  merely 
referring  to  some  commonplace  saying,  or  to  some  common 
basis  in  his  appeal  to  his  converts,  yet  in  chapter  five  of 
Polycarp's  Epistle,  2  Tim.  ii.  12  is  too  plainly  cited  to  admit 
of  any  such  explanation. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  in  the  Didache  we  find 
the  employment  of  words  which  may  be  fairly  described  as 
characteristic  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  and  the  same  remark 
may  be  made  of  some  of  the  words  and  phrases  in  the 
Clementine  Homilies.^ 

It  may  here  be  noted  that  B.  Weiss,  in  summing   up   the 

'  See  on  the  remarkable  force  of  this  evidence,  New  Testament  in  the 
Apostolic  Fathers  (Oxford,  1905),  p.  72  ff. 

^  N.7\  in  the  Apostolic  Fathers  (Oxford,  1905),  p.  96,  fully  admits  the 
force  of  these  passages,  and  lays  stress  also  upon  Phil.,  viii.  i,  and 
I  Tim.  i.  I  ;  Phil.,  xi.  4,  and  2  Tim.  ii.  25. 

*  B.  Weiss,  Die  Brief e  Paiili  a7i  Ti?notheus  und  Titus,  p.  55  (1902^, 
and  Einleitung  in  das  N.T.,  p.  38,  3rd  edit. 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  127 

results  of  his  investigation  of  the  earliest  traces  of  the 
New  Testament  Epistles,  remarks  that  the  Pastoral  Epistles 
evidently  belong  to  those  that  are  best  known.  From 
every  quarter  during  the  second  century  an  accumulation 
of  evidence   comes  to  us. 

We  turn  to  the  Apologists  Justin  Martyr  and  Aristides, 
and  we  find  references  to  two  of  the  three  Epistles.  In 
a  later  Apologist,  Athenagoras,  the  use  of  the  second 
Epistle  to  Timothy  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  i  Timothy  and  Titus  in  the  writings  of 
Theophilus.  In  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  early  Christian 
writings,  the  Epistle  to  Diognetus,  we  have  again  (xi.  3), 
what  may  be  fairly  called  a  kind  of  quotation  of,  or  at 
least  a  reminiscence  of,  i  Tim.  iii.  16,  "  for  which  cause  He 
sent  forth  the  Word,  that  He  might  appear  unto  the  world, 
who,  being  dishonoured  by  the  people,  and  preached  by 
the  Apostles,  was  believed  in  by  the  Gentiles."  In  the 
pathetic  letter  of  the  Christians  of  Vienne  and  Lyons  we 
have  a  remarkable  phrase,  "  the  pillar  and  ground,"  the 
Greek  words  being  in  both  cases  similar  to  those  in 
I  Tim.  iii.  15  ;  while  in  the  same  letter  we  have  a  reference 
to  the  words  closely  following  in  i  Tim.  iv.  3.  In  the 
Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs  it  is  quite  possible 
that  the  phrase,  "  the  mediator  of  God  and  men  "  (Dan  vi.) 
may  be  borrowed  from  i  Tim.  ii.  5.  In  all  this  it  is 
remarkable,  as  Dr.  Weiss  points  out,  how  frequent  is  the 
use  of  that  Epistle  of  the  three  which  is  most  disputed, 
viz.    I   Timothy. 

Whatever  difficulties  there  may  be  in  finding  certain 
traces  of  the  Pastorals  in  some  heretical  writings,  owing, 
perhaps,  to  their  personal  character,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
from  the  testimony  of  Tertullian  that  the  heretics  appealed 
to  more  than  one  passage  for  their  secret  tradition.^ 
Tertullian  himself,  with  Irenaeus  and  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
1  De prcescr.  hcsret,  25  ;  and  cf.  i  Tim.  vi.  20;  2  Tim.  i.  14. 


128     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

names  and  cites  the  Epistles  as  the  work  of  Paul.  The 
words  of  the  Muratorian  Fragment  may  well  suffice  for  a 
conclusion.  Of  the  blessed  Apostle  himself  the  writer 
says  that  he  wrote  one  letter  to  Philemon,  one  to  Titus, 
and  two  to  Timothy,  out  of  personal  regard  and  affection, 
but  that  these  too  are  hallowed  in  the  respect  of  the 
Catholic  Church  for  the  arrangement  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline.  Surely  this  statement  of  the  Muratorian  Frag- 
ment, so  far  from  militating  against  the  claims  of  the  three 
Epistles,  as  Holtzmann  would  suggest,  shows  us  that  their 
claims  had  been  duly  weighed  before  these  writings  were 
held   in   regard  by  the   Church. 

Before  we  pass  from  this  external  evidence  we  may  note 
that  Professor  Ramsay  reminds  us  that  the  apocryphal  Acts 
of  Pau/ and  T/iek/a  contain  references  to  names  mentioned 
in  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  such  as  Demas  and  Hermogenes, 
and  introduces  these  characters,  as  we  might  expect,  as 
hostile  to  Paul  and  as  bringing  charges  against  him  {^Church 
in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  392,  417).  Professor  Ramsay's 
testimony  also  goes  to  show  that  the  tone  of  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  is  consistent  only  with  an  early  date  of  persecution, 
and  that  therefore  these  letters,  for  this  reason  alone,  could 
not  be  placed  at  the  late  date  which  the  opponents  of  their 
authenticity  often  demand.  Surely  it  is  strange  that  when 
we  hear  so  much  of  the  denial  of  these  Epistles,  little  or  no 
stress  is  laid  upon  the  fact  by  those  hostile  to  their  claims 
that  one  of  the  most  learned  of  German  classical  scholars, 
Dr.  Blass  {Acta  Apostoloricin,  p.  24),  and  in  our  own  country 
Professor  Ramsay,  should  have  so  recently  acknowledged 
these  writings  as  the  undoubted  work  of  St.  Paul.^ 

Of  course,  it  must  be  admitted  that  so  far  we  have  been 
dealing  mainly  with  only  one   line  of  evidence  ;  but  "  it  is 

'  To  these  names  may  be  added  those  of  Dean  Bernard,  Camb. 
Greek  Test.  ;  Dr.  Lock,  Art.  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  iv.  ;  and  Dr.  Findlay, 
Art.  "  Paul,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  iii. 


THE    PASTORAL   EPISTLES  129 

remarkable,"  says  Dr.  Sanday  {Inspiration^  p.  364),  "  that  the 
external  evidence  for  the  Pastoral  Epistles  should  be  so  good 
and  so  early  as  it  is  ;  because,  apart  from  the  question  which 
seems  to  have  been  raised  and  debated  during  the  second 
century,  whether  letters  to  individuals  could  rightly  have 
canonical  value  assigned  to  them,  it  would  be  only  natural 
to  suppose  that  such  letters  would  be  later  in  getting  into 
circulation  than  letters  addressed  to  churches  and  read  in 
public  services." 

But  if  the  external  evidence  was  stronger  than  it  is  ^  we 
are  not,  of  course,  justified  on  this  ground  alone  in  asserting 
the  Pauline  authorship,  although  the  evidence  is  forthcoming 
that  this  line  of  proof  is  so  satisfactory.  And  to  some  minds 
the  points  of  internal  evidence  which  favour  the  Pauline 
authorship  will  always  appear  the  strongest  part  of  the 
defence.  The  most  recent  attack  upon  the  Pastoral  Epistles 
in  England  has  been  made  by  Dr.  Moffatt  in  Encycl.  BibL, 
iv.  In  this  full  and  elaborate  attack  Dr.  Moffatt  almost 
entirely  ignores  the  external  evidence  whilst  he  has  nothing 
to  say  to  the  remarkable  internal  evidence  which  immediately 
demands  our  attention.  The  large  number  of  personal 
names  introduced  into  these  letters  is  very  striking,  and  the 
fact  that  these  names  are  not  introduced  as  mere  empty 
names,  to  give  an  appearance  of  genuineness  to  the  letters, 
but  that  they  often  stand  out  as  figures  of  flesh  and  blood.^  It  is 
also  significant  that  in  this  long  list  of  names  so  many  are  not 
met  with  in  the  Acts  or  in  other  Pauline  letters.  A  man 
who  was  concocting  a  letter  in  the  second  century,  with  the 
idea  of  passing  it  off  as  St.  Paul's,  would  have  been  bold 
indeed  to  have  introduced  so  many  names,  quite  new  and 
quite  unknown. 

>  Against  McGiffert's  statement  as  to  this  alleged  weakness  (cf. 
Apostolic  Age,  p.  399)  we  may  place  Zahn's  discussion,  Einleitung,  i. 
486  ;  and  Belser,  Ei?ileitu7tg,  p.  63 1 . 

2  Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  457  ;  Belser,  Einleitung,  p.  632  ;  Weiss,  u.s. 
p.  66;  Salmon,  Introduction,  p.  410. 

9 


130     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

It  may  of  course  be  argued  that  a  forger  could  easily 
introduce  names  which  in  the  nature  of  the  case  no  one 
could  test,  because  no  one  was  aware  of  their  existence.  But 
quite  apart  from  the  large  number  of  these  unknown  names/ 
we  must  remember  that  such  names  by  no  means  stand  alone. 
They  are  found  side  by  side  with  the  names  of  some  ten  other 
persons  who  are  known  to  us  in  other  parts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. And  not  only  so,  but  these  names  of  persons  thus 
otherwise  known  to  us  are  here  dealt  with  in  a  most 
surprising  manner.  Demas,  e.g.,  is  known  to  us  in  Col.  iv.  14 
and  Philem.  verse  24  ;  but  in  each  of  these  Epistles  he  is 
closely  associated  with  the  honoured  name  of  Luke.  In 
2  Timothy  all  this  is  changed  ;  he  is  no  longer  in  honour, 
but  in  disgrace.  "  Demas  hath  forsaken  me,  having  loved 
this  present  world  "  (cf  iv.  10).  Is  this  the  work  of  a 
forger?  Who  is  it  that  thus  dares  to  put  the  brand  of 
disgrace  upon  Demas  ?  We  have,  too,  the  confident  as- 
sertion that  Demas  had  gone  to  Thessalonica,  but  there  is 
nothing  to  connect  him  with  this  region  except  the  inference 
that  he  may  have  been  a  fellow  citizen  of  Aristarchus  of 
Thessalonica,  with  whose  name  that  of  Demas  is  associated 
in  Philem.  verse  24.^ 

There  are  other  notices  which  are  puzzling  if  we  suppose 
that  the   Epistles  are  fictitious;  ^.^.,  Tit.  iii.    12. 

We  could  understand,  that  Tychicus  might  be  sent  to 
Colosse,  but  why  to  Crete,  in  company  with  Artemas,  of 
whom   we    know   nothing   from   any   other   New  Testament 

'  Dr.  Salmon  {Introduction,  p.  410)  justly  comments  on  the  fact  that 
the  Pastoral  Epistles  have  nothing  to  say  of  Aristarchus,  although,  as 
he  says,  his  name  ought  to  have  occurred  in  that  enumeration  of  his 
attendants  which  St.  Paul  makes  in  accounting  for  his  being  left  alone. 
The  probable  explanation  may  be  that  Aristarchus  was  dead  at  the 
time.  Rut  if  the  list  was  a  forgery,  the  question  may  be  fairly  asked, 
How  is  it  that  the  forger  who  can  give  so  courageously  the  history  of 
Paul's  other  attendants,  fails  in  his  heart  when  he  comes  to  speak  of 
Aristarchus  ? 

^  Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  458,  481. 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  131 

record  ?  And  it  would  savour  of  grievous  clumsiness  in  a 
forger  to  introduce  in  the  very  next  verse  Apollos,  with- 
out any  indication  that  he  is  the  famous  personage  of 
I  Corinthians  and  Acts,  as  also  at  Crete  in  company  with 
Zenas  the  lawyer  who  is  not  mentioned  elsewhere.  And 
why,  we  might  further  ask,  should  the  letter  have  been 
addressed  to  Crete  at  all  ?  Trophimus,  again,  is  left  by 
St.  Paul  at  Miletus  sick  (2  Tim.  iv.  20).  We  learn  from 
Acts  XX.  4-15  that  Trophimus  had  on  one  occasion  been  at 
Miletus  with  Paul  ;  but  would  it  not  be  in  plain  contradiction 
with  the  notice  in  Acts  to  leave  him  sick  at  Miletus,  for  in 
Acts  xxi.  29  we  find  him  with  St.  Paul  at  Jerusalem  ?  So, 
too,  the  notice  that  Titus  had  gone  to  Dalmatia  surprises 
us  ;  in  all  consistency  Titus  should  have  been  sent  to 
Crete  (2   Tim.   iv.    10). 

But  granting  that  some  at  least  of  the  personal  notices 
in  the  Pastoral  Epistles  need  not  present  any  surprise,  such 
a  point  of  detail  as  that  in  i  Tim.  v.  23  seems  quite  in- 
explicable as  the  notice  of  a  forger.  There  is  no  connection 
in  the  words  with  what  precedes  or  with  what  follows  which 
would  have  been  likely  to  have  suggested  such  a  piece  of 
advice  to  any  one  imitating  the  Apostle.  It  would  have 
found  a  place  much  more  naturally  in  the  exhortation  of 
iv.  4-16,  or  we  should  rather  have  expected  the  Apostle 
to  have  forbidden  wine  altogether  as  a  sequel  to  the  in- 
junction, "  Keep  thyself  pure." 

Such  a  notice,  too,  as  that  contained  in  2  Tim.  iv.  13  is 
quite  beyond  the  art  of  a  forger,  and  the  series  of  inter- 
pretations which  commentators  have  devised  in  their  dealing 
with  the  words  shows  how  hazardous  their  introduction 
would  have  been  on  the  part  of  any  one  uncertain  of  his 
ground.  But  on  the  supposition  that  the  Apostle  was 
released,  and  that  he  went  again  to  Ephesus,  as  he  intended, 
according  to  i  Tim.  iii  14,  the  notice  about  the  cloak  and 
the    exhortation     to    Timothy    to    bring    it    become    quite 


132     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

intelligible/  On  his  way  to  Ephesus  he  could  easily  touch 
at  Troas  ;  but  his  subsequent  arrest  would  prevent  him  from 
again  going  there  to  take  up  what  he  had  left.  Anyhow, 
some  such  hypothesis  is  quite  reasonable,  for  we  cannot 
suppose  that  the  notice  in  2  Timothy  refers  to  the  Apostle's 
visit  to  Troas  in  Acts  xx.  6,  since  in  that  case  he  would 
have  left  at  Troas  for  several  years  articles  which  were 
evidently  highly  valued  by  him.  Moreover,  when  we  come 
to  examine  these  Pastoral  Epistles,  the  whole  description 
of  Timothy  and  Titus  is  quite  the  reverse  of  what  would 
have  been  natural  to  an  imitator  of  Paul.  In  Phil.  ii.  19 
the  Apostle  had  spoken  in  the  highest  terms  of  Timothy  ; 
but  in  the  Pastorals  we  do  not  find  that  the  representation 
is  altogether  the  picture  which  we  might  have  expected  to 
have  been  drawn  for  us.  If,  however,  we  contrast  this  with 
the  legendary  panegyric  which  was  so  often  in  vogue  in  the 
early  Church,  and  if  we  bear  in  mind  that  a  pseudonymous 
writer  would  have  been  far  more  likely  to  exalt  Timothy 
than  to  pass  reflections  upon  him,  it  becomes  very  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  description  of  Paul's  "  son  in  the  faith  " 
is  otherwise  than  strictly  true.  Both  Timothy  and  Titus 
are  represented  not  only  as  young  men,  but  as  despised  on 
this  account,  and,  what  is  still  more  strange,  as  constantly 
needing  the  warnings  of  St.  Paul. 

Dr.  Moffatt,  in  his  recent  elaborate  attack,  maintains  that 
the  author  who  wrote  from  what  he  conceived  to  be  the 
standpoint  of  Paul  is  least  successful  in  reporting  what 
would  have  been  Paul's  tone  and  temper  to  colleagues  like 
Timothy  and  Titus,  and  he  speaks  of  the  curt  and  in- 
congruous general  instructions  which  are  put  into  the 
Apostle's  mouth.  Whether  St.  Paul's  advice  is  to  be 
regarded  as  curt  and  incongruous  is  perhaps  open  to 
question  ;  but  surely  the  more  curt  and  incongruous  we  make 
it,  the  more  difficult  it  is  to  conceive  that  any  forger  should 
'  Weiss,  U.S.  p.  321.     See  also  Salmon,  Introd.,  p.  401. 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  133 

introduce  it.  If  it  be  urged,  as  Dr.  Moffatt  apparently 
urges,  that  all  this  curtness  is  introduced  by  a  man  who 
was  surrounded  by  those  who  were  accustomed  to  exalt 
Paul  above  every  one  else,  it  must  be  remembered  that  this 
somewhat  curious  method  of  exalting  Paul  is  at  the  expense 
of  the  character  of  Timothy,  and  of  the  disparagement  of 
one  who  is  at  least  so  important  as  to  be  marked  out  as 
a  representative  official  of  the  Church,  and  the  recipient 
of  two  of  Paul's  letters,  and  who  is  still,  in  spite  of  his 
failings,  the  son  of  the  Apostle's  tender  love.  This  com- 
bination of  sternness  and  tenderness,  and  the  warnings  of 
a  man  who  knew  intimately,  from  previous  knowledge  and 
experience,  the  dangers  of  a  temper  like  that  of  Timothy, 
would  come  naturally  from  one  holding  the  position  of 
St.  Paul,  giving  his  final  and  solemn  exhortations  for  the 
guidance  of  life  and  the  welfare  of  the  Church.  But  a 
forger  writing  in  the  second  century  would  scarcely  have 
essayed  such  a  bold  and  hazardous  task,^  thus  to  represent 
such  a  combination  in  St.  Paul,  and  to  depict  at  the  same 
time  the  weakness  of  his  colleagues  and  the  high  authority 
intrusted  to  them  in  spite  of  it.  Moreover,  this  representation 
demands  that  2  Timothy  should  be  written  first,  then  Titus, 
and  then  i  Timothy,  because  of  its  sharper  and  more 
dictatorial  tone,  and  because  in  it  the  writer  stands  further 
from  the  influence  of  his  master.  When  he  wrote  2  Timothy 
he  had  considerable  Pauline  material  at  his  disposal  ;  but  all 
this  genuine  material  is  at  a  discount  when  the  writer 
wishes  to  elaborate  some  point  of  ecclesiasticism  or  Church 
organisation.  In  the  early  Church,  it  is  true,  the  general 
belief  was  that  2  Timothy  was  written  last  of  the  three 
epistles,  with  its  rich  personal  references  and  its  evident 
reflection  of  the  closing  phase  in  the  Apostle's  career  ;  but 
now  we  are  assured  that  a  comparative  study  of  the  contents 

^  Zahn,    Einleitung,    i.    459  ;    Lock,    Hastings'    B.D.,    iv.    ']'j2)i   as 
against  Moffatt,  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  5095. 


134    TESTIMONY    OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

compels  us  to  reverse  the  order,  and  that  2  Timothy  is  to 
be  placed  first.  The  reason  for  this  reversal  of  what  seems 
to  most  plain  people  the  natural  order  we  have  already 
seen. 

But  it  is  not  only  that  in  these  Epistles  the  picture  of 
the  relationships  between  the  chief  personages  concerned 
seems  strange,  unless  upon  the  supposition  that  it  is  drawn 
by  one  who  had  a  full  understanding  of  the  truth,  but  that 
the  whole  situation  represented  becomes  inconceivable  if 
the  letters  are  fictitious.  For,  on  this  latter  supposition,  we 
are  dealing  with  an  author  who  would  presumably  draw  his 
material  from  what  was  already  known  of  the  life  of  Paul. 
And  if  this  knowledge  was  derived  from  the  Acts  and  the 
Pauline  Epistles,  and,  as  we  are  assured,  from  genuine 
fragments  of  Paul's  own  writing,  a  pseudonymous  editor  or 
author  would  at  least  have  given  us  something  consistent 
with  these  sources,  and  not  have  involved  himself  in  such 
frequent  difficulties.  For  it  is  surely  a  strange  result  of  all 
the  patchwork  by  which  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  the 
Epistles  have  gained  their  present  form,  that  we  should  still 
be  left  with  a  set  of  circumstances  which  cannot  be  fitted 
into  the  known  events  of  St.  Paul's  life  without  the  most 
violent  expedients.  Indeed,  those  who  defend  the  Epistles 
would  act  wisely  in  giving  up  all  attempts  to  fit  them  into 
any  scheme  of  Paul's  life  which  is  covered  by  the  Acts  and 
the  Apostle's  acknowledged  Epistles,  and  the  difficulties  of 
doing  so  may  be  frankly  admitted.^  For  then  we  fall  back 
upon  the  possibility  that  these  writings  may  come  to  us 
from  some  period  of  St.  Paul's  life  subsequent  to  his  first 
recorded  captivity.  It  will,  of  course,  be  at  once  said  that  we 
have  no  ground  for  believing  that  the  Apostle  was  released 

'  Dr.  Clemen's  recent  attempts  in  this  direction,  and  his  arbitrary 
assignment  of  fragments  of  2  Timothy  to  different  dates  in  St.  Paul's 
career,  are  fresh  evidence  of  this  [Pauhis,  i.  146 fF).  He  assigns,  e.g., 
2  Tim.  iv.  19-22,  Titus  iii.  12-14,  to  the  year  57  ;  2  Tim.  iv.  Q-18  to  the 
imprisonment  in  Caisarea,  and  2  Tim.  i.  15-18  to  that  in  Rome. 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  135 

from  his  first  imprisonment.  But  this  is  to  dispose  of  a 
considerable  body  of  evidence  in  a  somewhat  hasty  manner. 
In  the  first  place,  we  have  at  least  one  Epistle  of  the 
Apostle,  admitted,  as  we  have  seen,  to  be  such  by  critics  of 
all  schools — Philippians — in  which  the  tone  is  very  different 
from  that  of  2  Timothy.  In  Philippians,  to  say  nothing  of 
a  similar  state  of  expectancy  in  another  undoubted  Epistle, 
Philemon,  a  note  of  joyful  assurance  of  release  is  struck 
which  contrasts  in  the  most  marked  manner  with  the 
language  of  2  Timothy.  In  this  last  Epistle  all  hope  of 
acquittal  is  gone,  death  stares  the  writer  in  the  face,  he  is 
already  being  poured  forth  as  an  offering,  and  the  time  of 
his  departure  is  at  hand.  This,  and  much  besides,  may  be 
adduced  to  show  that  the  view  of  a  second  imprisonment 
cannot  be  lightly  dismissed.  And  although  it  may  be  said 
that  we  cannot  make  the  genuineness  of  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  to  depend  upon  an  event  which  cannot  be  proved, 
or  the  event  to  depend  upon  Epistles  the  genuineness 
of  which  is  disputed,  yet,  at  least  it  may  be  said  that 
the  hypothesis  of  a  release  and  second  imprisonment  of 
St.  Paul  explains  our  letters  in  the  most  satisfactory 
manner,  whilst  the  existence  of  our  letters  may  be  ad- 
duced as  supplementing  and  completing  the  presumptive 
evidence  from  other  Epistles  which  point  to  the  Apostle's 
release. 

Dr.  Harnack,  we  may  note  in  passing,  now  speaks  of 
St.  Paul's  release  from  his  first  imprisonment  as  an  un- 
doubtedly  assured   fact  ^   {Chron.,  i.    240). 

The  question  of  language  is  another  problem  which 
presents  so  many  difficulties  in  connection  with  our  three 
Epistles,  and  it  may  be  conveniently  raised  at  this  point. 
For  it  is  very  noticeable  that  several  expressions  occur  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians  and  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles, 

'  The  present  writer  may  refer  for  the  question  of  St.  Paul's  release 
and  second  imprisonment  to  the  Critical  Revievj,  July,  1898. 


136     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

but  in  no  other  writings  of  St.  Paul.^  But  this  would  be 
obviously  quite  natural  on  the  supposition,  which  is  so  well 
supported  by  recent  scholars,  that  Philippians  is  the  Epistle 
which  may  be  placed  nearest  to  the  Pastorals  in  point  of 
time. 

Again,  it  would  be  very  natural  that  a  lengthy  residence 
in  Rome  should  result  in  the  employment  by  the  Apostle 
of  the  many  Latinisms  which  we  find  in  these  Pastoral 
Epistles,  as  even  Holtzmann  allows.  We  have,  e.g.,  the 
phrase  8t'  rjv  alTiav  =  quani  ob  rem  (instead  of  the  simple  8to), 
a  phrase  occurring  three  times  in  these  Epistles  ;  the  phrase 
yo-piv  €r^€.iv  =  gr attain  habere,  which  is  found  twice  ;  so, 
again,  KaKovpyo<5  =  vialeficus,  which  is  only  found  in  the  N.T, 
Epistles  in  2  Tim.  ii.  9  ;  and  to  these  may  be  added  the 
Jiapaxlegonicna,  0,87^X077^?  ^  incertitudo  (i  Tim.  vi.  17)  and 
TTpoKpiyia  =■  prcsjudiciuni  (i  Tim.  v.  21),  (Holtzmann's 
Einleitungf  p.  286). 

So  far  as  the  general  style  and  language  of  the  Pastorals 
are  concerned,  they  are  sometimes  defended  on  the  ground 
that  the  Apostle  was  an  old  man,  and  that  he  writes  at  this 
period  of  his  life  as  an  old  man.  But,  if  so,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  in  the  Philippian  Epistle,  in  which,  as  we 
believe,  we  may  see  the  writing  which  precedes  the  Pastorals 
most  closely,  no  one  discovers  anything  to  betoken  the 
characteristics  of  an  old  man's  style.  The  aim  of  the  letters 
gives  us  the  best,  and  perhaps  the  truest,  explanation.      In 

'  Cf.,    e.g.,   affjivik   Phil.    iv.    8,   and   elsewhere   three  times,   viz.   in 

1  Tim.  iii.  8,  1 1  ;  Titus  ii.  2;  eTrtx"".  Phil-  ii-  16;  only  once  elsewhere, 
V2Z.  I  Tim.  iv.  16;  TrpoKcrrvT],  twice  in  Philippians,  viz.'i.  12,  25;  and 
once  elsewhere,  i  Tim.  iv.  15.  So,  too,  we  may  notice  that  in  Phil.  i. 
St.  Paul  speaks  of  his  desire  to  depart  {avoKvaai,  verse  23),  of  his  conflict 
{ayoiv,  verse  30),  of  his  willingness  to  be  cffered  {a-rrevbofxai ,  ii.  17),  of  his 
pressing  on  (iii.    14)  in  his   contest  for  a  prize.      When  we  turn   to 

2  Tim.  iv.  6  we  find  the  same  ideas  and  the  same  language.  The 
Apostle  is  ready  to  be  offered  (anevbofjiai),  the  time  of  his  departure  is  at 
hand  {avaXvais),  he  has  fought  a  good  fight  (uyav).  See  Speaker's 
Commentary,  iii.  758. 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  137 

his  earlier  writings  St.  Paul  had  been  concerned  mainly 
with  polemical  questions,  with  arguments  and  discussions, 
whereas  now  he  is  rather  insisting  upon  practical  piety  and 
the  rules  of  holy  living,^  he  is  giving  instructions  ;  and  even 
when  he  has  in  mind  the  errors  of  false  teachers  he  does 
not  enter  upon  their  detailed  refutation,  but  contents 
himself  with  defining  the  attitude  most  becoming  for 
Timothy  and  Titus  in  face  of  such  dangers.  In  this 
connection  it  should  also  be  remembered  that  many  of  the 
hapaxlegoinena  in  these  Epistles  may  be  fairly  explained  by 
bearing  in  mind  the  objects  of  the  Apostle  in  characterising 
doctrinal  errors  and  in  laying  down  more  minutely  regula- 
tions for  Church  government  and  offices."  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  argument,  from  the  occurrence  of  so  many 
hapaxlegoinena,  has  been  overstated.  That  a  large  number 
of  this  class  of  words  is  found  in  the  three  writings  none 
will  deny  ;  but  this  is  the  case  in  other  Pauline  Epistles, 
and  the  other  groups  of  the  Apostle's  letters  are 
characterised  by  expressions  peculiar  to  them  and  to  their 
subject  matter  ;  moreover,  this  argument  from  language  may 
be  said  to  cut  both  ways.^  It  is  only  fair  to  mark  the  hits, 
as  well  as  the  misses  ;  and  even  Holtzmann  is  constrained 
to  allow  that  there  is  a  rich  district  of  language  common  to 
our  three  Epistles  and  to  all  which  bear  the  name  of 
St.  Paul  ;  constantly  we  are  meeting  with  words  character- 
istic of  one  and  the  same  writer,  of  his  turns  of  expression 
and  his  modes  of  thought. 

Closely  allied  to  this  question  of  language  is  that  of  the 
references  in  the  writer  of  these  Epistles  to  heresies  and 
strange    doctrines.      Three   points    may   be    noted.      In    the 

^  Lock,  Paul  the  Master-Builder,  pp.  117-21. 

^  See,  amongst  other  recent  defenders  of  the  Epistles,  Belser, 
Einleitutig,  p.  637. 

^  See  the  whole  question  of  language  discussed  from  a  conservative 
standpoint  by  Weiss,  u.s.  1902,  p.  47  ff,  and  Zahn,  Einleitung^  i. 
480-8. 


138     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

first  place  there  is  nothing  in  the  expressions  employed 
which  can  be  definitely  connected  with  the  Gnosticism  of 
the  second  century.^  One  famous  passage  (i  Tim.  vi.  20) 
was  relied  upon  by  Baur  in  proof  of  this,  where  the  Apostle 
exhorts  Timothy  to  turn  away  from  profane  babblings  and 
oppositions  of  the  knowledge  falsely  so  called.  But  although 
Baur  has  had  some  able  followers,  yet  fatal  objections  have 
been  raised  to  this  late  Gnostic  interpretation  of  this  passage 
not  only  by  Dr.  Weiss  and  Dr.  Zahn  in  Germany,  but  by 
Dr.  Hort  in  England,  whose  investigations  have  gained  the 
high  praise  of  the  last-named  German  scholar  {Einleitiuig^ 
i.  484). 

It  may  be  at  once  admitted  that  Marcion  uses  the  word 
"  oppositions  " — the  same  word  which  is  used  in  i  Tim.  vi.  20 
of  oppositions  of  the  knowledge  which  is  falsely  so  called. 
But  how  does  Marcion  employ  the  term  ?  Of  the  "  Opposi- 
tions "  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and  as  the  title  of  a 
book.  The  word  might  well  be  used  in  this  sense  by 
Marcion  in  accordance  with  his  whole  system  ;  but  the 
reference  to  any  book  bearing  the  title  is  very  unlikely 
in  I  Tim.  vi.  20.  Moreover,  it  would  be  strange  indeed 
that  the  false  teachers  who,  like  the  followers  of  Marcion, 
opposed  the  law  and  the  Gospel,  should  be  characterised 
as  desiring  to  be  teachers  of  the  law  (i  Tim.  i.  7),  that 
they  should  be  spoken  of  as  lovers  of  Jewish  fables  (Titus 
i.  14)  and  as  belonging  in  great  part  to  the  circumcision 
(Titus  i.  10). 

A  much  more  likely  interpretation  is  that  given  by  Hort,^ 
who  sees  in  the  words  under  consideration  a  referen.ce  to 
the  endless  contrasts  of  decisions,  founded  on  endless  dis- 
tinctions, which  played  so  large  a  part  in  the  casuistry  of 
the  Scribes  as  interpreters  of  the  law  ;  in   other  words,  the 

'  See,  on  the  strained  nature  of  some  of  these  supposed  references, 
Weiss,  U.S.  p.  20,  24 ;  and  cf.  Belser,  Einleitung,  p.  634. 
^  Hort,  Judaistic  Christianity,  pp.  133,  140,  210, 


THE    PASTORAL   EPISTLES  139 

setting  one  point  against  another,  "  objections "  almost 
"  cavils."  ^  It  was  not,  of  course,  unnatural  that  the  Fathers 
of  the  second  century  should  feel  that  heretics  of  their 
own  day  and  of  their  own  century  were  referred  to  in  such 
a  phrase  as  "  knowledge  falsely  so  called."  But  not  only  are 
there  traces  of  the  use  of  the  word  Gnosis,  as  signifying 
esoteric  lore,  long  before  the  days  of  the  great  Gnostic  sects, — 
"  knowledge,"  e.g.,  in  the  Colossian  Epistle,  is  a  favourite 
word  constantly  on  the  lips  of  the  false  teachers  (Lightfoot, 
Biblical  Essays,  p.  414), — but  the  same  word  might  easily  be 
used  to  describe  the  special  claim  which  the  Rabbis  made 
to  superior  wisdom.  And  we  remember  how  our  Lord 
Himself  had  His  word  of  warning  and  judgment  against 
those  who  by  their  study  of  the  law  actually  took  away  the 
key  of  "knowledge  "  (Luke  xi.  52). 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  so  distinguished  a 
scholar  as  Dr.  Hort  has  insisted  in  his  chapter  on  the 
Pastoral  Epistles  that  the  errors  in  question  are  entirely 
Judaistic.  That  they  were  mainly  so  we  can  scarcely  doubt, 
if  we  fairly  take  into  account  the  language  used  by  the 
writer.  We  have,  e.g.,  the  fact  upon  which  both  Weiss 
and  Hort  alike  insist,  that  those  who  are  addressed  are  not 
summoned  to  refute  fundamental  errors,  but  to  reject  point- 
less speculations.  And  thus  they  are  warned  not  to  give 
heed  to  fables  and  endless  genealogies  (i  Tim.  i.  4),  not  to 
give  heed  to  "Jewish  fables  "  (Titus  i.  13),  the  "  fables  "  in 
each  case  being  presumably  the  same  ;  and  we  also  may 
note  that  the  genealogies  are  connected  very  significantly 
with  strifes  about  the  law  (Titus  iii.  9).  In  this  connection 
reference  is  sometimes  made  to  a  passage  in  the  historian 
Polybius  (ix.  2.  i),  where  precisely  the  same  phrase  occurs, 
"  genealogies  and  fables  " — a  phrase  which  evidently  includes 
not  so  much  what  we  mean  by  genealogies  proper,  but  the 
mythological  legends  and  tales  connected  with  the  births  of 
'  Hort,  Judaistic  Christia7iity,  pp.  133,  140,  210. 


I40    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

demigods  and  heroes.  And  not  only  so,  but  it  is  still  more 
suggestive  to  find  that  Philo  used  the  term  "  genealogicum  " 
to  include  all  the  primitive  human  history  in  the  Pentateuch. 
It  was  a  fair  inference  that  if  this  term  could  be  thus  applied, 
such  a  word  would  be  even  more  applicable,  especially  in 
combination  with  "  fables  "  to  the  legendary  history  of  the 
patriarchs  and  heroes  of  early  Jewish  times,  like  the  Hagga- 
doth  or  similar  legendary  literature.  And  the  legitimacy 
of  this  inference  may  be  said  to  be  placed  beyond  a  doubt 
by  the  contents  of  TJie  Book  of  Philo  concerning  Biblical 
Antiquities,  falsely  attributed  to  Philo,  and  dated  within  the 
first  century  of  our  era — a  book  which  had  almost  escaped 
notice  until  some  few  years  ago.  It  had  been  printed  three 
times  before  1550  A.D.,  but  from  that  period  until  1898 
scarcely  anything  had  been  heard  of  it.  But  it  will  be 
noted  that  Dr.  Hort's  Judaistic  Christianity  anticipated  the 
re-publication  of  this  curious  book  by  four  years.^  "  In  the 
Pastoral  Epistles,"  writes  Dr.  James  {Church  Congress,  1898), 
"  St.  Paul  repeatedly  warns  Timothy  and  Titus  that  they 
are  to  avoid  Jewish  fables  and  endless  genealogies  as  being 
unprofitable  and  vain.  It  has  been  a  commonplace  of 
criticism  to  say  that  by  these  genealogies  we  are  to  under- 
stand the  long  mystical  pedigrees  of  spiritual  beings  or 
seons,  which  are  so  prominent  a  feature  of  the  Gnostic 
aeons  of  the  second  century  ;  and  upon  this  supposition  is 
founded  an  argument  against  the  genuineness  of  the  Epistles 
in  question.  But  this  book  of  the  false  Philo  shows  us 
exactly  what  St.  Paul  did  mean,  and  why  he  connected  the 
mention  of  the  endless  genealogies  with  that  of  the  Jewish 
fables.  For  "  Philo  "  devotes  a  very  considerable  part  of 
his  book  to  enumerating  and  naming  the  descendants  of  the 
antediluvian  patriarchs  and  of  the  sons  of  Noah.  The 
names  he  gives  them  and  the  numbers  he  assigns  to  their 
families  are  of  course  purely  fanciful  ;  but  we  can  easily  see 
'  Hort,  U.S.  p.  135,  and  Art.  "  Genealogy,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  ii. 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  141 

how  they  would  afford  scope  for  discussions  and  speculations 
to  those  who  elected  to  believe  in  them,  and  also  how 
singularly  well  chosen  are  the  epithets  which  St.  Paul  applies 
to  them." 

Moreover,  in  addition  to  this  book  of  the  pseudo-Philo, 
we  have  the  equally  remarkable  apocryphal  book,  the  Book 
of  Jubilees,  one  object  of  which  was  to  glorify  the  patriarchs 
by  legendary  additions  and  emendations  of  their  history, 
a  book  closely  concerned  throughout  with  numbers  and 
generations.  The  most  recent  editor  of  this  book.  Dr. 
Charles,  although  he  places  it  in  the  second  century  B.C., 
instead  of  in  the  first  century  of  our  era,  with  many  scholars, 
writes  of  it  as  follows  : 

"  The  Pauline  phrases,  '  fables  '  and  '  endless  genealogies,' 
'  old  wives'  fables,'  '  genealogies  and  fighting  about  the  law,' 
form  a  just  description  of  a  large  portion  of  Jubilees.  The 
'  old  wives'  fables  '  may  be  an  allusion  to  the  large  role 
played  by  women  in  it."  ^  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that 
we  are  at  least  justified  in  closely  connecting  these  errors 
with  those  of  Jewish  schools  and  teachers  ;  but  whether  we 
can  do  so  entirely  is,  of  course,  a  further  question.  Dr.  Hort 
is  evidently  of  opinion  that  we  can,  and  he  regards  such 
a  restriction  as  "  forbidding  to  marry,"  which  we  should  not 
expect  to  emanate  from  the  Jews,  as  being  possibly 
connected  with  the  Jews  of  the  Diaspora  in  their  exposure 
to  so  many  foreign  influences,  and  as  indicative  of  a 
view  of  marriage,  which  might  soon  place  it,  like  other 
abstinencies,  under  some  religious  ban. 

Certainly  there  are  some  very  striking  points  of  contact 
between  the  dangers  or  possible  dangers  remarked  upon  in 
the  Pastoral  Epistles  and  the  tenets  of  the  particular  sect 
of  the  Ophites  with  which  Lightfoot  would  connect  them.^ 

'  Book  of  Jubilees,  p.  Ixxxv. 

-  Lightfoot,  Biblical  Essays,  p.  414  ;  and  Professor  Massie,  Art. 
"Fable,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  i. 


142     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

The  Ophites,  who  regarded  the  symbol  of  the  serpent 
with  reverence  and  honour,  taught,  it  would  seem,  by  myths. 
They  forbade  marriage ;  they  maintained  that  the  resurrection 
was  spiritual — in  other  words,  they  said,  with  Hymenaeus  and 
Philetus,  that  it  was  past  already  ;  and  it  may  be  that 
there  are  also  evidences  of  the  use  amongst  them  of  the 
"  genealogies  "  mentioned  in  the  Pastorals. 

Bishop  Lightfoot  places  the  heresy  at  such  an  early  date 
as  to  regard  its  origin  as  contemporaneous  with  the  Apostles  ; 
but  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  giving  a  summary  of 
the  account  of  this  heresy  in  Hippolytus,  he  recognises  that 
we  are  not  dealing  with  the  original  form  of  the  heresy,  and 
that  later  accretions  have  gathered  around  it. 

But  the  point  with  which  we  are  chiefly  concerned  is 
this,  that  the  heresy  in  question  was  Jewish  in  its  origin, 
and  that  whilst  it  might  be  classed  as  Judaic-Gnosticism,  it 
is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  Gnosticism  of  the  later 
second  century  Gnostic  sects. ^ 

But   whilst    the   association    of  the  false    teachings  with 
Judaic   elements    may   be   undoubtedly   acknowledged,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  it  is  any  help  to  the  genuineness  of  the 
Pastoral  Epistles  to  go  further  than  this,  and  to  attempt  to 
identify  their  language  with  a  rejection  of  any  one  definite 
heresy.      The  traces,  ^.g.,  of  a  connection  with  the  tenets  of 
the  Ophites  may  be  combated  by  the  argument  that  these 
traces  do  not  fit  in  with  the  tenets  of  the  Ophites  alone,  and 
that  certain  details  may  be  quoted  against  the  identification 
of   the    teaching    in    question   with    that   of   this   one    sect. 
Indeed,  the  very  indefiniteness  of  the  language   used,  and 
the    varied    and    sometimes     contradictory     nature    of    the 
attempts  made  to  refer  it  to  this  sect  or  to  that,  may  rather 
be  fairly   used  as  an   argument  for  the  early  date   of    the 
Epistles    in    contrast    to    the    more    definite    and   technical 
language  of  the   Gnosticism    of  the  second   century.      And 
'  Weiss,  U.S.  p.  43. 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  143 

in  this  connection  it  is  very  noteworthy  that  critics  like 
Holtzmann  and  Von  Soden,  no  less  than  some  of  the 
most  orthodox  defenders  of  the  Epistles,  reject  any  relation 
to  the  concrete  teaching  of  any  one  false  sect,  and  allow 
that  only  a  budding  Gnosticism  is  in  general  combated. 
But  this,  surely,  is  exactly  what  might  be  admitted  by  the 
most  strenuous  defenders  of  the  three  Epistles.  And  if  we 
turn  for  a  moment  to  the  Church  government  which  we 
find  in  these  letters,  may  not  the  same  note  of  indefiniteness 
equally  tell  in  favour  of  an  early  date  ? 

These  Epistles  represent  a  kind  of  transition  stage,  and 
if  the  "  ecclesiasticism  "  which  is  alleged  against  them  had 
been  so  predominant,  the  whole  representation  of  Church 
government  would  have  been  different.  "  They  signalise 
the  first  step,"  as  it  has  been  said,  "  towards  the  formation 
of  the  Diocesan  episcopate."  The  Apostle  has  the  oversight 
and  the  government  over  the  Churches  ;  but  that  power  may 
be  delegated  by  him  to  others,  and  these  Epistles  give  us 
two  instances  of  this  delegation  to  Timothy  and  Titus  over 
the  Churches  of  Ephesus  and   Crete. 

But  if  these  Epistles  had  been  forgeries  coming  to  us 
from  the  close  of  the  first  century,  all  this  would  have  been 
different.  We  should  not  have  had,  as  even  the  opponents 
of  the  Epistles  admit,  a  delegation  of  an  entirely  peculiar 
and  exceptional  character,  which  differed  from  that  of  the 
diocesan  as  well  as  of  the  metropolitan  episcopate  ;  in  other 
words,  we  should  have  had  not  the  introduction  of  an 
expedient  to  which  the  history  of  the  first  century  contains 
no  analogy,  but  the  introduction  of  a  permanent  institution. 
And  if  this  is  so,  the  question  may  be  fairly  asked  as  to 
where  these  Epistles  could  be  placed  more  naturally  and  fitly 
than  in  the  closing  years  of  St.  Paul's  life  ?  ^ 

One   further   point,   to   which    we   have   already   referred, 

'  Church    Quarterly  Review,   vol.   xlii.   p.    299  ff.     Bishop   Gore, 
Church  and  the  Ministry,  p.  247. 


144     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

must  always  be  kept  prominently  in  view.  The  three 
Epistles  stand  or  fall  together  :  this  is  generally  admitted.^ 
But  we  are  constantly  told  that  the  chief  object  of  the  writer 
was  to  insure  the  acceptance  of  the  traditional  teaching  of 
the  Church,  and  to  lay  stress  upon  its  episcopal  organisation. 
But  if  so,  it  must  always  remain  a  curious  fact  that  the  letter 
which  advanced  criticism  regards,  as  we  have  noted,  as  the 
earliest  of  the  three,  viz.  2  Timothy,  should  be  just  the 
letter  in  which  no  trace  of  this  tendency  to  insist  upon 
ecclesiastical  matters  is  found,  replete  as  it  is  with  quite 
general  exhortations  to  Christian  endurance,  and  an  honour- 
able fulfilment  of  the  Christian  calling.^  It  has  become,  as 
we  have  seen,  almost  an  axiom  of  advanced  critics  of  a 
certain  school  to  regard  2  Timothy  as  the  earliest  of  the 
three,  and  as  the  letter  standing  nearest  to  the  Pauline 
tradition,  and  containing  probably  genuine  Pauline  notes 
and  reminiscences.  This,  then,  is  the  letter  which  would 
obviously  command  the  widest  and  greatest  respect,  as  being 
rich  in  such  genuine  Pauline  treasures,  whilst  in  the  other 
two  letters,  which  make  ecclesiastical  organisation  their  chief 
concern,  the  personality  of  Paul  retires  into  the  background. 
This  is  an  inversion  of  what  we  might  justly  expect,  viz. 
that  the  rich  Pauline  reminiscences  would  be  used  to  support 
the  demand  for  ecclesiastical  organisation. 

This  consideration  brings  us  to  a  brief  notice  of  the 
attacks  directed  against  the  more  doctrinal  bearing  of  the 
Epistles. 

Thus,  it  is  urged  that  the  word  St/catocrwi^  is  no  longer 
used  in  its  technical  Pauline  sense,  but  rather  as  a  virtue 
which  the  Christian  must  seek  to  gain  like  other  moral 
virtues  (cf  2  Tim.  ii.  22).  But  St.  Paul  frequently  employs 
the  word  in  this  later  sense  in  his  earlier  Epistles  (cf,  e.g., 
2  Cor.  ix.  10  ;   Rom.  vi.  13,  viii.  10).      And  in  these  Pastoral 

'  See  Holtzmann,  Einleitu7ig,  p.  274. 
=*  Ibid.f  p.  274  ;  Weiss,  u.s.  p.  80. 


THE    PASTORAL   EPISTLES  145 

Epistles  there  are  also  other  passages  which  lay  stress  upon 
the  grace  of  God,  and  upon  being  justified  by  His  grace  (cf. 
Titus  iii.  4-6,  ii.  11-14  ;   2  Tim.  i.  9). 

The  truth  is  that  St.  Paul,  in  writing  practical  advice  for 
the  government  of  the  churches,  in  the  midst  of  a  society 
where  every  form  of  vice  and  licentiousness  abounded,  would 
naturally  include  the  cultivation  of  moral  virtues.  The 
words  which  occur  so  frequently  in  these  Epistles  denoting 
soundness  and  healthiness,  and  other  terms  relating  primarily 
to  health  and  disease,  which  are  characteristic  of  them,  cease 
to  surprise  us  when  we  remember  that  for  St.  Paul  salvation 
was  the  power  of  a  new  and  divine  life,  the  gift  of  a  renewed 
nature,  from  which  good  works  naturally  flowed.  And  how 
natural,  we  may  add,  would  such  metaphors  derived  from  the 
thought  of  bodily  health  and  soundness  come  to  us  from  a 
man  whose  closest  friend  was  Luke  the  physician,  from 
a  man  who  had  known  a  worse  disease  working  in  his 
members  than  that  of  impaired  bodily  health,  who  could 
pray  for  his  converts  in  his  earliest  letters,  that  their  spirit 
and  soul  and  body  might  be  preserved  entire,  without  blame, 
at  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ  (i  Thess.  v.  23).^ 

There  is  one  passage  in  the  New  Testament  which  has 
been  spoken  of  as  the  favourite  passage  of  the  great  Selden,^ 
in  which  we  find  in  a  most  striking  degree  the  combination 
of  grace  and  works ;  the  grace  of  God  and  the  godly, 
righteous,  and  sober  life  as  the  outcome  of  the  reception  of 
that  gift.  "  For  the  grace  of  God,"  writes  St.  Paul  to  Titus 
(ii.  11-14),  "hath  appeared,  bringing  salvation  to  all  men, 
instructing  us  to  the  intent  that,  denying  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly  and  righteously  and 
godly  in  this  present  world  ;   looking   for   the    blessed  hope 

^  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  frequent  use  of  these  medical  metaphors 
in  the  Pastoral  Epistles  may  be  referred  to  St.  Paul's  intimacy  with  St. 
Luke.  Plumptre,  Expositor^  p.  146  (1876);  Lock,  Hastings'  B.D.,  iv. 
']']Z  ;  Findlay,  Epistles  of  Paul,  p.  213. 

^  See  Quarterly  Review,  July,  1887,  p.  238. 

10 


146     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

and  appearing  of  the  glory  of  our  great  God  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  Himself  for  us,  that  He  might  redeem 
from  all  iniquity,  and  purify  unto  Himself  a  people  for  His 
own  possession,  zealous  of  good  works." 

It  is  indeed  alleged  that  here  again  the  stress  is  laid 
chiefly  upon  doctrinal  teaching,  and  that  this  is  character- 
istic of  a  time  later  than  that  of  St.  Paul  ;  that  the  word 
"  faith,"  e.g.^  is  used  in  the  Pastorals  not  as  a  subjective  feeling, 
but  as  describing  a  body  of  objective  truths,  in  the  sense, 
in  fact,  of  a  creed.  Yet  not  only  is  it  likely  that  St.  Paul 
would  point  to  "  a  form  of  sound  words  "  in  contrast  to  the 
sickly  effects  of  questionings  and  disputings  (i  Tim.  vi.  4  ; 
2  Tim.  i.  13) ;  but  we  have  references  in  his  earlier  writings  to 
a  form  of  doctrine  (Rom.  vi.  17),  a  pattern  of  teaching,  where- 
unto  his  converts  had  been  delivered,  a  passage  in  which  we 
have  a  cognate  word  for  "  form  "  or  "  pattern  "  to  the  word 
used  2  Tim.  i.  13  ;  and  so,  too,  he  speaks  in  i  Cor.  xv.  3 
of  delivering  to  his  converts  that  which  he  had  received. 

Moreover,  we  can  see  also  in  the  earlier  Epistles  how 
easily  the  term  "  faith  "  might  come  to  be  applied  to  the 
main  facts  and  truths  of  the  Christian  religion,  to  be,  in  fact, 
a  synonym  for  the  term  "  the  Christian  religion  "  (Gal.  i.  23  ; 
iii.  23)  ;  how  fitly  St.  Paul  would  bid  the  Corinthians  to 
stand  fast  in  the  faith,  to  try  themselves  whether  they 
were  in  the  faith. 

And  what,  after  all,  was  more  natural  (a  point  which  the 
opponents  of  the  Epistle  never  for  a  moment  consider)  than 
that  St.  Paul,  as  life  grew  to  its  close,  should  seek  not  only 
to  insure  the  Apostolic  teaching  as  a  possession  for  the 
Church,  but  that  he  should  again  and  again  point  to  the 
facts  which  formed  the  groundwork  of  that  teaching,  and  to 
the  motives  which  would  be  likely  to  gain  the  most  ready 
acceptance.  And  so,  here  again,  we  come  across  one  of  the 
chief  and  greatest  characteristics  of  St.  Paul's  teaching,  his 
wonderful    power    of    uniting    a    personal    and    unbounded 


THE   PASTORAL   EPISTLES  147 

devotion  to  Christ  with  the  simplest  practical  guidance  for 
the  Christian  life  and  the  Christian  Church. 

Surely  from  this  point  of  view  nothing  could  be  more 
significant  than  the  fact  that  in  those  "  Faithful  Sayings," 
which  are  found  only  in  these  Pastoral  Epistles  in  the  New 
Testament,  but  which  had  so  evidently  gained  a  wide  accept- 
ance at  the  period  when,  as  we  believe,  these  Epistles  were 
written,  we  should  find  a  reference  made  in  the  two  sayings, 
which  were  probably  the  first  and  last  of  the  five  (i  Tim. 
i.  15;  2  Tim.  ii.  11-13),  to  the  Incarnation,  the  Life  and 
Suffering,  the  Death,  the  Resurrection,  the  Ascension  of 
Christ,  as  a  power  of  forgiveness  for  the  past,  of  endurance 
in  the  present,  of  hope  for  the  future. 

This  Christ  in  whom  "  the  Faith  "  was  centred  had  given 

Himself  a  ransom  for  all.      The   Redeemer  of  the  world.  He 

had  not  only  been  manifested    in   the   flesh.    One    mediator 

between  God  and  men.  Himself  the   Man  ;  but  to  Him  in 

His  ascended  glory  prayer  was  to  be  addressed,  because   He 

was  ever  at  hand   to  bless  and  deliver.      His  words  are  the 

canon  of  truth,  of  Christian  understanding,  of  Christian  life  ; 

He  is  our  ensample  in  the  daily  struggles  with  the  world  ; 

He   is  our  Judge,  testing  our  service   and    our  loyalty,  in 

whose  presence  we  all    stand.      Need   it  surprise   us    if,    as 

St.  Paul  thought  of  Him,  upon  whose  Name,  as  the  bond  of 

their   union    and  strength,  men  were  to  call  as  they  called 

upon  Jehovah  (2  Tim.  ii.  19,  22)  ;  in  whose  Incarnation  the 

grace  of  God  appeared,  bringing  salvation  to  all  men  (Titus 

ii.    11),  abolishing  death  and  bringing  life  and  incorruption 

to  light,  his  vision   should    pass  beyond   the   limits  of  this 

present  time-world  to  his   Lord's  heavenly  kingdom  (2  Tim. 

iv.   18),  and  that  he  should  look   for  the  blessed  hope   and 

appearing  of  the  glory  of  our  great  God  and  Saviour  Jesus 

Christ?  (Titus  ii.  13,  R.V.) 


LECTURE    VIII 
THE   ACTS    OF    THE    APOSTLES 

IN  the  preceding  lectures  an  endeavour  has  been  made 
to  justify  our  use  of  all  those  Epistles  in  the  New 
Testament  which  are  attributed  to  St.  Paul.  But  before 
we  proceed  to  estimate  the  Apostle's  testimony  in  relation 
to  the  Life  of  the  Gospels,  and  in  relation  to  the  life  of 
the  Church,  another  New  Testament  book,  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  claims  our  serious  consideration  for  this,  the  last 
lecture  of  this  first  series.  How  far  are  we  justified  in 
referring  to  this  book  as  an  authentic  record  of  St.  Paul's 
witness  and  work  ? 

In  answering  this  inquiry,  we  may  start  by  observing 
that,  whoever  the  writer  of  the  Acts  may  have  been,  he  is 
remarkably  accurate  in  his  descriptions  of  St.  Paul's  labours. 
No  book  of  the  New  Testament  has  been  exposed  to 
severer  scrutiny  in  England,  Germany,  America,  Holland, 
during  the  last  few  years,  and  it  may  be  fearlessly  asserted 
that  that  scrutiny  has  testified  to  the  carefulness  and  know- 
ledge of  the  writer  in  a  very  striking  degree. 

Let  us  confine  ourselves  for  the  moment  to  that  part  of 
the  book  which  deals  mo.st  fully  with  St.  Paul's  missionary 
journeys,  and  consider  how  closely  the  record  touches  the 
religious,  political,  social  life  of  the  ancient  world.  Bishop 
Lightfoot  long  ago  pointed  out  that  the  most  difficult  of 
all  subjects  for  accurate  treatment  in  the  first  century  was 
the  administration  of  the  Roman   Empire  and  its  provinces. 

148 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  149 

Here,  if  anywhere,  we  might  expect  that  a  writer  would 
make  some  grave  blunder,  and  prove  his  incapacity  to  deal 
with  matters  as  a  serious  historian.  But  if  a  writer  can  be 
shown  to  be  accurate  here,  we  may  justly  count  upon  his 
accuracy  elsewhere,  and  even  in  points  which  still  present 
uncertainty  we  may  fairly  ask  ourselves  if  it  is  not  more 
likely  that  we  are  in  fault  rather  than  the  writer  whose 
accuracy  has  been  put  to  such  searching  proof.  In  this 
connection  reference  may  be  made  to  a  now  familiar 
instance  of  St.  Luke's  accuracy,  and  this  instance  is  placed 
first,  because,  although  familiar  to  some  of  us,  it  is  so  striking 
in  itself,  and  because  it  has  a  special  interest  for  Londoners. 

In  the  description  of  St.  Paul's  visit  to  Thessalonica 
(Acts  xvii.)  St.  Luke  speaks  of  the  magistrates  of  that  city 
as  "  politarchs."  No  classical  authors  use  the  word  of  the 
magistrates  of  any  city  (although  we  find  in  their  pages 
closely  similar  forms),  and  this  was  quoted  as  a  glaring 
instance  of  St.  Luke's  inaccuracy.  But  an  inscription  on 
an  arch  spanning  a  street  of  the  modern  Saloniki  has  been 
fortunately  preserved  for  us,  and  there  the  exact  title  is 
found.  The  arch  is  assigned  to  the  time  of  Vespasian,  and 
the  entablature  preserved  by  the  British  Consul  in  1876 
at  the  instance  of  Dean  Stanley  may  now  be  seen  in  the 
British  Museum.  But  since  that  date  we  have  had  fresh 
inscriptional  evidence  of  a  remarkable  character,  both  from 
Dr.  Zahn  and  Professor  Burton. 

The  latter  has  collected  no  less  than  seventeen  inscriptions 
on  which  the  word  or  a  closely  similar  form  occurs.  Of 
these  no  less  than  thirteen  are  referred  to  Macedonia,  and 
of  these  five  again  to  Thessalonica.  The  number  of 
"  politarchs "  in  the  latter  city  varies  from  five  to  six,  and 
the  inscriptions  extend  in  date  from  the  beginning  of  the 
first  to  the  middle  of  the  second  century. 

This  accuracy  of  St.  Luke  appeals  to  us  all  the  more 
powerfully   because    we    are    able   to    contrast    it  with    the 


T50    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

mistakes  which  have  found  their  way  into  the  better  known 
apocryphal  Acts,  e.g.  the  Acts  of  Paid  and  Thekla.  There 
we  read  of  a  pro-consul  at  Iconium  ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
no  pro-consul  was  ever  resident  at  Iconium  or  was  governor 
of  the  province  in  which  Iconium  was  situated/  This 
mention  of  a  notable  apocryphal  Acts  leads  us  to  remark, 
in  passing,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  overestimate  the 
differences  between  our  canonical  Acts  and  the  Acts  bearing 
the  names  of  various  Apostles,  such  as  Peter,  John,  Andrew. 
We  have  had  during  the  present  year,  in  connection  with 
this  subject,  the  publication  of  a  newly  discovered  fragment, 
which  appears  to  have  formed  part  of  an  Acts  of  Peter. 
This  fragment  was  discovered  at  Akhmim  in  Egypt,  in  1898, 
the  place  previously  noted  as  the  site  of  the  discovery  of 
the  fragment  of  the  so-called  Gospel  of  Peter,  and  it  is 
placed  at  the  opening  of  the  third  century.  In  it  we  find 
St.  Peter  represented  as  performing  a  number  of  cures  in 
his  own  house  at  Jerusalem.  A  bystander  asks  why  he 
does  not  cure  his  own  daughter.  The  girl  is  very  beautiful, 
but  a  paralytic.  To  confirm  the  faith  of  the  bystanders, 
the  girl,  in  answer  to  St.  Peter's  bidding,  comes  to  him  in 
the  strength  of  Jesus.  But  the  gladness  of  the  spectators  is 
doomed  to  be  of  short  duration,  for  she  is  ordered  to 
return  again  to  her  couch  and  suffer  as  before,  since  that 
is  profitable  for  her  and   for  her  father. 

St.  Peter  then  explains  that  the  girl  has  been  struck  by 
paralysis  in  answer  to  her  parent's  prayer,  because  her  hand 
had  been  sought  by  a  suitor  who  had  attempted  to  carry 

'  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  in  passing  that  the  writer  of  the  article 
"Asia  Minor"  in  the  new  edition  of  Herzog,  Dr.  Johannes  Weiss, 
bears  frequent  testimony  to  the  help  of  Ramsay  in  testing  these  and 
other  particulars,  and  that  both  he  and  another  distinguished  German, 
C.  Clemen,  now  unhesitatingly  come  forward  as  advocates  with  Ramsay 
of  the  S.  Galatian  theory.  So  also  Von  Soden,  Urchristiicke  Literatur- 
geschickte.,  p.  30  (1905).  The  same  view  is  strongly  maintained  in 
Professor  Bacon's  Story  of  St.  Paul,  p.  99  (1905),  although  on  the  other 
side  Schiirer,  Holtzmann,  Schmiedel  must  still  be  ranked. 


THE   ACTS    OF   THE   APOSTLES  151 

her  away.  Her  lover,  Ptolemaeus  by  name,  is  also  intro- 
duced into  the  story.  At  first  grieving  bitterly  for  his  loss, 
he  is  afterwards  saved  from  despair,  and  makes  his  will 
before  his  death,  by  which  he  bequeaths  a  field  to  St.  Peter's 
daughter.  The  Apostle  himself  administers  the  property, 
and  devotes  not  a  part,  but  the  whole,  of  the  price  to  the 
poor.  Many  of  the  traits  in  this  curious  story  may  be 
connected  with  various  Scripture  notices,  but  the  whole 
story  (both  in  its  details  and  in  its  attempt  to  recommend 
the  morals  of  a  later  date)  stands  in  marked  contrast  to 
what  has  been  truly  called  "  the  grave  simplicity  and 
catholicity  of  the  canonical  Acts."  ^ 

There  are  two  other  particulars  in  this  first  missionary 
journey  to  which  Dr.  Weiss  directs  attention,  both  of  which 
testify  to  the  acquaintance  of  the  writer  with  the  life  and 
scenes  which  he  describes.  One  is  the  notice  of  the 
Magian  Ely  mas  at  Cyprus,  so  natural  when  we  recall 
how  a  Roman  governor  was  wont  to  be  accompanied 
in  his  provinces  by  his  comites  or  cohors  amicoruin.  The 
other  is  the  name  Sergius  Paulus.  Amongst  many  points 
of  interest  in  a  recent  article,  in  which  no  less  a  person 
than  Professor  Mommsen  is  prepared  to  accept  the  account 
in  the  Acts  of  St.  Paul's  missionary  journeys  as  for  the  most 
part  a  contemporary  and  trustworthy  historical  narrative,  we 
find  the  probable  identification  of  the  Sergius  Paulus  of  Acts 
xiii.  with  one  of  the  curators  of  the  Tiber,  a  man  of  Praetorian 
rank.^ 

A  stronger  case  might,  I  think,  undoubtedly  be  made  out, 
and  we  might  fairly  take  into  account  Pliny's  mention  of  a 
certain  Sergius  Paulus  as  a  chief  authority  for  parts  of  his 
Historia  Naturalis,  which  curiously  enough  do  contain  special 
information  about  Cyprus.      There  is,  too,  the  connection  of 

^  Expository  Times,  June,  1903,  gives  an  account  of  C.  Schmidt's 
book  by  Professor  Allan  Menzies.  See  Die  alien  Petrusakten,  pp. 
7  ff,  by  C.  Schmidt,  1903. 

2  Zeitschrift fiir  die  neutesi,  Wissenschaft,  Heft  2,  p.  83  (1901). 


152     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  gens  Sergia  with  the  island,  confirmed  by  a  recently 
discovered  inscription  ;  whilst  another  inscription,  which  had 
already  been  partly  made  public,  is  now  more  accurately 
deciphered,  containing  apparently  the  words  "  Paul  pro- 
consul." 

It  would  seem  indeed  that  even  the  most  arbitrary  and 
depreciatory  criticism  is  constrained  at  all  events  to  bear 
testimony,  however  grudgingly,  to  St.  Luke's  remarkable 
accuracy  in  connection  with  the  kind  of  details  which  we 
have  been  considering.  "  After  every  deduction  has  been 
made,"  writes  Schmiedel  in  "  Acts,"  Encycl.  Bibl.  (i.  47), 
"  Acts  certainly  contains  many  data  that  are  correct,  especially 
in  the  matter  of  proper  names,  such  as  Jason,  Titius  Justus, 
Crispus,  Sosthenes,  or  in  little  touches  such  as  the  title 
politardi,  which  is  verified  by  inscriptions  from  Thessalonica, 
as  in  the  title  of  chief  man  for  Melita,  and  probably  the 
name  of  Sergius  Paulus,  as  pro-consul  for  Cyprus."  ^ 

Inscriptions  indeed  play  an  important  part  in  the  right 
understanding  of  this  first  missionary  journey.  It  is  barely 
twenty  years  ago,  for  instance,  that  it  was  known  by  the 
evidence  of  an  inscription  that  Lystra  was  a  Roman  colony 
at  all  ;  and  whilst  it  is  true  that  no  trace  of  the  actual 
Temple  of  Zeus  has  been  discovered,  yet  other  inscriptions 
help  us  to  see  the  perfect  naturalness  of  the  expression  : 
"  Jupiter   whose   temple  was   before   the   city." 

One  other  point  of  primary  importance  is  connected  with 
the  visit  to  Lystra  and  the  incident  of  stoning  in  that  town. 
"From  2  Tim.  iii.  lo-ii,"  says  Ramsay,  "it  is  clear  that 
Timothy,  son  of  a  Jewess  Eunice,  wife  of  a  Greek,  and 
brought  up  in  the  Jewish  faith  by  his  mother  and  his  grand- 
mother, Lois,  saw  this  occurrence.  Certainly  he  was  con- 
verted at  this  time,  and   doubtless  helped  to  consolidate  the 

*  Bearing  all  this  in  mind,  it  surely  becomes  very  difficult  to  suppose 
that  St.  Luke,  of  all  New  Testament  writers,  should  have  commenced 
his  Gospel  with  a  grave  and  gratuitous  historical  blunder  in  his  account 
of  our  Lord's  birth, 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  153 

newly  founded  Church  in  Lystra."  These  remarks  of  Ramsay 
may,  I  think,  be  fitly  compared  with  those  made  long  ago 
by  Paley  {Horce  Paulines,  xii.  5).  He  points  out  how  in 
writing  to  Timothy  St.  Paul  reminds  him  of  the  persecutions 
which  he  endured  at  Antioch,  Iconium,  Lystra.  The  con- 
formity between  the  Epistle  and  the  history  in  Acts  is 
striking.  Not  only  does  St.  Paul  suffer  persecution  in  the 
three  cities  in  the  order  mentioned  in  the  Epistle  ;  but  also, 
whilst  Lystra  and  Derbe  are  commonly  mentioned  together 
in  the  Apostolic  history,  no  mention  is  made  in  the  Epistle 
of  Derbe.  Why?  Because  the  Apostle  is  enumerating  his 
persecutions,  and  no  persecution  occurred  at  Derbe.  Paley 
further  asks,  How  did  these  persecutions  become  so  well 
known  to  Timothy  as  St.  Paul  affirms  ?  Now,  in  Acts 
xvi.  I,  at  the  commencement  of  St.  Paul's  second  journey,  he 
revisits  Derbe  and  Lystra,  "  and  behold,  a  certain  disciple 
was  there  named  Timothy."  He  must,  therefore,  have  been 
converted  before  ;  he  was  already  a  Christian  disciple.  But 
it  is  expressly  stated  in  the  Epistle  that  Timothy  was  con- 
verted by  St.  Paul  himself,  and  the  inference  is  therefore 
plain  that  this  conversion  must  have  taken  place  on  St. 
Paul's  former  journey,  the  time  when  he  underwent  the 
persecutions  referred  to  in  the  Epistle.  This  inference 
is  also  strengthened  by  the  notice  in  Acts  xvi.  2  that  this 
same  Timothy  was  well  reported  of  by  the  brethren  at 
Iconium   and    Lystra. 

This  coincidence  between  2  Timothy  and  Acts  xvi.  i  is 
claimed  by  Paley  to  be  something  more  than  artificial. 
Supposing,  he  argues  with  great  force,  that  the  writer  of  the 
Epistle  had  been  seeking  for  some  coincidences  between  the 
history  and  the  names  of  the  cities  which  he  mentions,  then 
surely  he  would  have  sent  us  at  once  to  Philippi  and 
Thessalonica.  There  Paul  suffered  persecution,  and  thither, 
from  what  is  stated,  it  may  easily  be  gathered  that  Timothy 
accompanied  him.     This  would  have  been  far  easier  than  to 


154    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

have  appealed  to  persecutions  as  well  known  to  Timothy, 
in  the  account  of  which  persecutions  Timothy's  presence  is 
not  mentioned,  although  it  may  be  so  fairly  inferred. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  his  second  missionary  journey, 
St.  Paul  (Acts  xvi.  12)  comes  to  Philippi,  described  by  our 
R.V.  as  "  a  city  of  Macedonia,  the  first  of  the  district,  a 
Roman  colony."  It  is  the  only  place  in  the  New  Testament 
in  which  the  word  KoXcovta  occurs,  and  the  Revisers  rightly 
insert  the  word  "  Roman  "  to  distinguish  it  from  any  Greek 
colony,  and  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  Philippi  was  enjoying 
the  JUS  Italicitin,  governed  by  Roman  law,  and  on  the  model 
of  Rome. 

The  statement  of  St.  Luke  might  mean  that  Philippi  was 
the  first  city  which  they  reached  in  the  district  of  Macedonia, 
Neapolis  being  regarded  generally  as  Thracian  and  not 
Macedonian.  But  there  are  weighty  objections  to  this,  both 
geographical  and  grammatical  ;  it  is  doubtful,  e.g.,  whether 
Philippi  itself  was  not  as  Thracian  as  Neapolis,  since  Neapolis 
was  in  the  territory  of  Philippi ;  and  the  grammar  of  this 
interpretation  seems  impossible,  since  Trponr)  appears  to 
be  never  so  used  in  this  sense  without  some  qualifying 
words. 

Again,  St.  Luke's  statement  might  mean  that  Philippi 
was  the  first  city  in  rank  of  this  district,  i.e.  one  of  the  four 
districts  into  which  the  Romans  had  divided  the  province  of 
Macedonia.  But  then  the  difficulty  is  that  Amphipolis  was 
the  chief  city  of  the  district,  to  which  both  it  and  Philippi 
belonged,  and  in  St.  Luke's  day  it  was  still  more  than  equal 
to  Philippi  in  importance. 

But  here  again  Ramsay  helps  us  to  see  how  St.  Luke 
may  have  keenly  entered  into  the  feelings  of  rival  Greek 
cities,  and  how  in  this  word  TrpcoTr)  he  may  be  bringing 
vividly  before  us  the  claims  made  by  Philippi  as  against 
Amphipolis,  a  case  of  rivalry  customary  enough  between  two 
or  even  three  cities.      It  is  quite  true  that  the  title  TTpiOTrj, 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  155 

as  an  absolute  title  of  rank,  is  only  found  in  towns  of  Asia 
Minor,  but  the  title  was  frequent  in  Asia  and  Cilicia,  and 
might  easily  have  been  used  elsewhere.  The  word  rendered 
"  district  "  (/xCjOt?)  has  also  caused  great  difficulty,  and  it  has 
even  been  objected  that  it  is  never  used  in  the  sense  of  the 
district  of  a  province.  Dr.  Hort  went  so  far  as  to  suggest 
UiepiSo^i  (instead  of  jxeptSos),  a  chief  ;  city  of  Pierian 
Macedonia,  as  he  felt  so  puzzled  by  the  word  fxepi,'?.  But 
here  again  Professor  Ramsay  has  shown  that  the  word  is 
certainly  used  in  Egypt  as  a  technical  term  in  the  sense  of 
the  subdivision  of  a  large  district  or  province  ;  so  that  St. 
Luke's  accuracy  cannot  fairly  be  questioned  for  a  similar 
use  of  the   word. 

There  is,  however,  a  further  reason  why  the  passage  before 
us  is  of  interest  just  at  present.  Mr.  C.  H.  Turner  (Art. 
"Philippi,"  in  Hastings'  Dictionary)  has  endorsed,  with  his  great 
authority,  an  emendation  adopted  by  some  earlier  writers,  and 
in  our  own  day  by  Dr.  Field  and  Dr.  Blass.  It  is,  as  he 
calls  it,  a  simple  emendation  ;  he  would  read  tt/^wtt^?  for 
TTp(i)Trj  Tqs,  "  a  city  of  the  first  region  of  Macedonia  and 
a  colony," 

It  is  objected  to  this  that  though  Philippi  had  belonged 
to  the  first  region,  yet  the  whole  division  of  the  province 
into  tetrarchies  had  become  obsolete  in  St.  Luke's  day.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact  this  is  an  assertion  for  which  there  is  no 
proof  forthcoming,  and  even  if  the  old  division  had  passed 
away,  there  was  every  probability  that  another  of  a  more  or 
less  similar  kind  would  take  its  place. 

In  any  case,  St.  Luke's  accuracy  cannot  fairly  be  called 
into  account.  Van  Manen  (Art.  "  Philippi,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.) 
is  careful  to  point  out  that  all  that  is  said  is  not  that 
Philippi  was  the  first  city,  or  the  capital,  or  the  first  city  of 
Macedonia,  but  that  it  was  regarded  at  that  time  and  in 
those  parts  as  "  a  first,"  i.e.  "  first  class,"  city,  and  he  points 
out  how  there  were  at  the  same  period  cities,  of  first  and 


IS6     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

second,  third  and  fourth  rank  ;  Marquardt,  indeed,  speaks 
of  a  "  seventh." 

A  word  upon  two  other  points  in  this  narrative  of  Paul 
at  Philippi.  In  reading  Professor  Ramsay's  St.  Paul  we 
must  all,  I  think,  have  been  struck  with  the  freshness  with 
which  he  invests  the  incident  of  the  Apostle's  imprisonment 
and  liberation.  Dr.  Ramsay  had  had  the  opportunity  in  great 
Eastern  earthquakes,  some  twenty  years  ago,  of  seeing  and 
hearing  their  strangely  capricious  action.  Any  one  who  has 
seen  a  Turkish  prison  will  not  wonder  that  the  doors  were 
thrown  open  ;  each  door  was  merely  closed  by  a  bar,  and 
the  earthquake,  as  it  passed  along  the  ground,  forced  the 
door-posts  apart,  so  that  the  bar  slipped  from  its  hold  and 
the  door  swung  open.  How  natural,  too,  is  in  reality  the 
surprising  fact  that  the  prisoners  made  no  dash  for  safety 
when  their  bonds  were  partially  loosed.  An  earthquake 
strikes  panic  into  the  semi-Oriental  mob  in  the  Aegean  lands, 
and,  moreover,  the  opportunity  of  escape  was  brief,  and  in  a 
moment  it  appears  to  have  been  lost.  All  this  is  dismissed 
by  Holtzmann  as  humbug  !  but  how  does  he  himself  deal 
with  the  narrative?  The  introduction  of  the  earthquake  is 
described  as  inconceivable,  and  yet  on  the  same  page  it  is 
allowed  that  the  Apostle's  misusage  at  Philippi  stands 
historically  true,  because  we  read  (i  Thess.  ii.  2),  "  but  having 
suffered  before  and  been  shamefully  entreated,  as  you  know 
at  Philippi."  Here,  then,  we  have  the  characteristic  touch — 
the  rejection  of  the  supernatural  as  the  unhistorical. 

But  this  is  not  all.  In  the  latest  edition  of  his  com- 
mentary Holtzmann  again  supposes,  with  writers  of  the 
same  school,  that  a  story  narrated  by  Lucian  may  have 
influenced  the  narrative  in  Acts.*  The  story  describes  how 
at  Alexandria  about  100  A.D.  some  innocent  prisoners  dis- 
dained an  opportunity  of  flight,  and  instead  of  the  dismissal 

'  Die  Apostelgeschichte,  p.  108,  3rd  edit.,  1901  ("  Hand-Commentar 
zum  N.T."). 


THE   ACTS    OF   THE   APOSTLES  157 

offered    them,  compelled    the   express   recognition  of    their 
innocence  on  the  part  of  the  magistrates. 

But  does  history  never  repeat  itself?  Is  it  so  impossible 
that  both  stories  should  be  true  ?  Moreover,  no  attempt  is 
made  to  show  how  the  incidents  at  Alexandria  became 
"••known  to  St.  Luke,  or  rather  to  the  author  of  Acts  of  the 
late  date  which  Holtzmann  supposes,  or  how  they  were 
then  incorporated  into  his  narrative.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
add  that  the  whole  statement  is  vague  and  meaningless. 

The  fact  is  that  it  seems  quite  out  of  the  question  to 
satisfy  our  scientific  critics.  Some  incidents  of  a  story  are 
dismissed  as  untruthful  because  they  are  so  unique,  whilst 
others  are  branded  with  the  same  suspicion  because  they 
meet  us  elsewhere. 

In  the  Apostle's  third  missionary  journey  occurs  his  long 
stay  at  Ephesus.  In  the  opening  account  of  his  doings  in 
the  great  capital  of  the  province  of  Asia,  we  come  across 
a  narrative  which  seems  to  shake  even  Ramsay's  faith  in  St. 
Luke's  character  as  a  historian.  The  powers  of  St.  Paul 
are  brought  into  rivalry  with  those  of  the  Jewish  exorcists, 
and  the  Apostle  triumphs  over  them  ;  but  in  this  account 
Ramsay  can  only  regard  the  writer  as  a  picker-up  of  current 
gossip,  like  Herodotus,  rather  than  as  a  real  historian,  and 
he  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  if  there  were  many  such 
contrasts  in  the  book  as  that  which  exists  between  the 
description  of  the  exorcists  in  the  earlier  part  of  chapter 
xix.,  and  that  of  the  riot  at  Ephesus  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
same  chapter,  he  should  be  a  believer  in  the  composite 
character  of  Acts.  But  in  the  verses  which  Ramsay  impugns 
there  are  at  least  several  marks  to  be  noted  of  accuracy 
and  truthfulness.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  remarkable  that 
the  narrative  of  the  man  with  the  evil  spirit  ends  where  and 
how  it  does.  A  forger  would  surely  have  crowned  the 
story  of  the  picture  of  the  man  after  baffling  the  impostors, 
healed  by  the  word  or  the  touch  of  St.  Paul.      It  may  also 


158     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

be  noted  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  St.  Luke  carefully  dis- 
tinguishes between  natural  diseases  and  the  diseases  of  the 
demonised,  one  of  those  medical  distinctions  pointed  out  by 
Dr.  Hobart,  whose  loss  we  have  so  recently  mourned. 

Again,  the  language  of  the  writer  in  the  passage  before 
us  seems  to  indicate  careful  inquiry  rather  than  chattering 
and  curiosity.  The  money  value  of  the  books  that  were 
destroyed  has  been  described  as  a  touch  thoroughly  character- 
istic of  the  Oriental  popular  tale.  But  may  we  not,  on  the 
other  hand,  see  in  the  statement  the  knowledge  of  a  writer 
who  thus  hits  off  the  Oriental  standard  of  worth,  especially 
in  a  chapter  otherwise  so  rich  and  exact  in  its  description  of 
Ephesian  localities  and  life  ? 

In  the  mention  of  the  books  it  is  of  course  usual  to  see  a 
reference  to  the  famous  'E<^ecrta  ypct/xjaara  ;  but  it  is  of 
interest  to  note  that  Dr.  Deissmann,  whose  Biblical  Studies 
have  become  so  well  known  in  England,  finds  in  this 
short  narrative  two  or  more  distinctively  technical  terms. 
Thus  it  would  seem  that  the  word  irpd^L^  in  the  clause, 
"  they  showed  their  deeds,"  was  a  terminus  technicus  for  a 
magical  prescription  ;  so,  again,  in  "  many  of  those  that 
practised  curious  arts,"  we  remember  that  the  R.V.  renders 
"  curious  "  by  "  magical,"  and  Dr.  Deissmann  is  able  to 
illustrate  from  the  papyri  the  same  use  of  the  word  in  the 
sense  of  magical  arts,  in  addition  to  some  similar  instances 
of  the  use  of  the  cognate  verb  given  long  ago  by  Wetstein.' 

Reference  is  made  in  the  Acts  to  St.  Paul's  visits  both  to 
Athens  and  Ephesus.  The  same  two  cities,  we  remember, 
were  also  visited  by  the  famous  magician  and  philosopher 
Apollonius  of  Tyana,  in  the  same  first  century  after  Christ. 

'  In  this  connection  we  may  note  that  Dr.  Clemen  [Paulas,  i.  284) 
quite  allows  that  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  burning  of  the  books 
by  the  inhabitants  of  such  a  town  as  Ephesus,  and  that  in  any  case  the 
value  of  such  books  must  have  been  high,  even  if  in  the  narrative  the 
price  is  somewhat  exaggerated. 

-  Deissmann,  Bibelstudien,  i.  5. 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  159 

These  are  the  kind  of  doings  attributed  to  Apollonius. 
At  Athens  he  casts  out  a  devil  from  a  youth  who  was 
possessed.  He  rebukes  the  devil  and  asks  him  to  give 
some  sign  of  his  departure.  The  devil  answers,  "  I  will 
make  that  statue  fall,"  and  this  accordingly  happens  to  a 
statue  in  a  royal  portico  at  which  the  devil  is  said  to  have 
pointed.  At  Ephesus  he  discovers  that  a  plague  is  raging. 
He  affirms  it  to  be  caused  by  a  demon  in  the  form  of  an  old 
beggar,  who  had  an  extraordinary  power  of  winking  ;  the 
beggar  is  stoned  by  the  command  of  Apollonius,  and  so  the 
plague  ceased.  After  the  stoning  had  been  carried  out,  a 
large  and  wild  dog  appears  in  place  of  the  body  of  the  old 
beggar.  It  is  surely  fair  that  the  wide  difference  between 
these  fantastic  details  and  the  simplicity  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment narratives  should  be  duly  observed,  a  contrast  which 
also  meets  us  in  the  writings  of  the  Rabbis  and  in  the 
historian  Josephus. 

The  author  of  a  once  famous  work.  Supernatural  Religion, 
has  recently  issued  a  new  edition  of  his  book.  It  is  quite 
true  to  say  that  this  book  shows  no  acquaintance  with  the 
recent  literature  on  the  Acts,  although  it  claims  with  unhesitat- 
ing confidence  to  be  brought  up  to  date  ;  it  says  nothing  of 
Ramsay  ;  and  it  has  no  reference  whatever  to  the  work  of 
Dr.  Blass  or  to  the  recent  Einleitung  of  Zahn,  or  other  strong 
supporters  of  the  miraculous  element  in  the  Acts. 

But  the  immediate  point  is  this  :  The  author  of  Super- 
natural Religion  speaks  of  the  Acts  as  describing  an 
elaborate  system  of  supernatural  agency  far  beyond  the 
conception  of  any  other  New  Testament  writer.  But  he  has 
nothing  whatever  to  say  of  the  restraint  and  reserve  which 
are  so  often  conspicuous  in  the  Acts  ;  he  has  nothing  to  say  of 
the  remarkable  fact  that  only  once  in  his  public  speeches  at 
Jerusalem  does  St.  Peter  appeal  to  our  Lord's  mighty  works 
and  wonders — and  signs  (ii.  22) — an  appeal,  however,  which 
we  at  once  see  to  be  perfectly  natural  when  addressed  to 


i6o     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

men  who  had  witnessed  the  deeds  of  Jesus  which  had  been 
wrought  in  their  midst. 

Outside  the  addresses  and  the  three  missionary  journeys, 
another  journey  of  the  Apostle  may  claim  a  few  minutes' 
attention — the  voyage  of  St.  Paul  to  Rome.  We  are  all 
aware  how  the  truthfulness  of  St.  Luke's  narrative  has 
received  a  striking  and  permanent  verification  in  the  careful 
volume  written  by  James  Smith  of  Jordanhill,  and  I  would 
venture  to  recommend  to  those  who  perhaps  may  not  be  aware 
of  it  the  fourth  edition  of  the  work  (published  by  Longmans), 
with  a  preface  by  Bishop  Harvey  Goodwin. 

But  in  addition  to  the  recognition  of  the  value  of  Mr. 
Smith's  book  by  conservative  writers  like  Dr.  Zahn,  and 
also  by  Dr.  Wendt,  it  is  noteworthy  that  its  main  statements 
have  been  endorsed  in  recent  years  by  two  competent 
authorities  on  naval  matters,  by  Dr.  Breusing,  Director  of 
the  Naval  School  at  Bremen  ;  and  in  France  by  Jules  Vars, 
professor  at  the  Lycee  in  Brest.  Other  contributions  to  the 
verification  of  the  narrative  have  been  made  in  Germany  ; 
and,  most  recently  of  all,  in  England,  a  Presbyterian  Annual 
for  the  present  year  contains  an  article  by  the  Rev.  J.  A. 
Sim,  of  Valetta,  in  which  he  bears  testimony  from  his 
residence  and  inquiries  on  the  spot  to  the  traditional  belief 
that  St.  Paul's  Bay  is  the  place,  and  the  only  possible  place, 
for  the  shipwreck. 

Curiously  enough,  the  only  dissentient  view  of  importance 
to  the  truthful  accuracy  of  the  narrative  comes  in  this  case 
from  Mommsen,  as  it  is  difficult  to  treat  seriously  Van 
Manen's  view  that  St.  Paul  made  the  voyage,  although  not 
as  a  prisoner,  but  as  a  free  man,  all  the  details  which  would 
lead  us  to  regard  him  as  a  prisoner  being  unhistorical.  But, 
as  Zahn  justly  remarks,  Mommsen  has  not  increased  his 
reputation  by  alleging  that  St.  Luke  shows  himself  in  error 
in  .speaking  of  the  Adriatic  Sea  (xxvii.  27)  "  by  Crete,"  or  of 
the  barbarians  of  Malta.      There  is  ample  justification   for  a 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  i6i 

wide  use  of  the  term  Adria  in  St.  Paul's  day,  as  including 
the  whole  sea  which  lay  between  Malta,  Italy,  Greece,  and 
Crete';  whilst  the  term  "  barbarian  "  is  of  course  used  simply 
to  denote  that  the  inhabitants  of  Malta  were  not  a  Greek- 
speaking  population,  and  the  evidence  of  coins  and  inscrip- 
tions may  be  adduced  to  show  that  the  Phoenician  tongue 
had  not  died  out  in  the  island,  the  people  being  undoubtedly 
of  Phoenician  descent. 

In  dealing  with  the  text  of  this  chapter  I  would  draw 
attention  not  only  to  the  comments  of  James  Smith,  Dr. 
Blass,  and  Professor  Ramsay,  but  also  to  the  valuable 
renderings  of  our  own  Revised  Version,  in  bringing  out  so 
frequently  the  force  and  vividness  of  the  narrative. 

I  should  like  to  have  read  to  you  the  passage  in  which 
another  German  professor  of  the  first  rank,  who  cannot 
certainly  be  accused  of  any  bias  in  favour  of  the  historical 
character  of  the  Acts,  Professor  Weizsacker,  of  Tubingen, 
the  successor  of  Baur  in  his  professorial  chair,  speaks  of  this 
narrative  of  the  shipwreck  as  a  pearl  of  priceless  value. 
"  Above  all,"  he  says,  "  we  here,  learn  to  know  the  Apostle 
whose  spiritual  pre-eminence  in  matters  of  faith  and  Church 
leadership  we  have  admired  elsewhere,  as  the  man  of 
practical  life,  who  by  his  rich  experience  in  every  situation, 
his  repose  and  self-control,  and  his  penetrating  insight, 
compels,  in  the  humiliating  position  of  an  imprisoned  criminal, 
the  respect  of  those  around  him,  and  finally,  through  his 
superiority,  assumes  their  leadership "  {Apostolic  Age,  ii. 
126,  E.T.). 

One  other  incident  of  primary  significance  in  the  Apostle's 
life  finds  an  important  place  in  the  closing  chapters  of  the 
Acts — the  fact  of  his  conversion.  The  three  narratives 
of  the  event  which  the  Acts  gives  us  go  far  to  maintain 
the  credit  and  the  truthfulness  of  the  historian,  and  from 
this  point  of  view  further  reference  is  made  to  them  in 
a    later    lecture,  in    the   next   series.       We  see    in   them   a 

n 


i62     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

proof  of  the  substantial  accuracy  which  in  St.  Luke's 
judgment  might  fairly  underlie  a  considerable  amount  of 
variation  in  details. 

But  one  observation  may  be  made  with  regard  to  these 
three  accounts  of  St.  Paul's  conversion.  If  we  owe  the 
Acts  to  a  number  of  revisers  and  redactors,  how  is  it  that 
the  discrepancies  and  variations,  of  which  so  much  has 
sometimes  been  made,  between  the  three  accounts  are  left 
standing  ?  Surely,  at  least,  the  final  editor  would  have 
taken  care  to  remove  the  variations  in  detail,  or  we  must 
credit  him  with  an  incredible  boldness  in  thus  allowing  so 
many  of  them  to  remain. 

Who,  then,  is  the  writer  whose  accuracy  stands  out  so 
clearly  in  that  portion  of  the  Acts  with  which  we  are 
more  immediately  concerned,  and  who  does  not  hesitate 
to  lay  himself  open  to  attack  in  thrice  repeating  in  his 
book  the  same  episode  in  the  life  of  his  hero  ?  There 
are  undoubtedly  certain  portions  of  the  record  which 
claim  to  come  to  us  from  an  eye-witness,  a  companion  of 
St.  Paul,  portions  consisting  in  all  of  some  ninety-seven 
verses,  to  which  the  title  of  the  We- sections  has  been 
given. 

Two  questions  arise  :  Who  was  this  eye-witness  ?  Was  he 
the  author  not  only  of  the  We-sections,  but  of  the  rest  of  the 
book  ?  In  answering  the  first  question,  reference  may  be 
made  to  the  recent  statement  of  a  distinguished  writer  on  the 
Acts,  whose  testimony  is  all  the  more  noteworthy  because 
he  does  not  accept  the  Lucan  authorship  of  the  whole  of 
that  book.  "  The  diary  of  a  companion  of  Paul,"  writes 
Professor  Bacon,  "  is  used  in  Acts  xvi.  10-18  ;  x.x.  5-17  ;  xxi. 
1-18  ;  xxvii.  I — xxviii.  16,  who  can  scarcely  have  been  other 
than  Luke,"  and  he  adds  in  a  note,  "  There  has  been  just 
enough  of  effort  in  favour  of  Timothy,  of  Titus,  of  Silas,  to 
show  how  difficult  it  is  to  find  a  companion  of  Paul  better 
fitted  to  the  case  than  Luke,  who  is  favoured  by  most  critics 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  163 

as  well  as  by  tradition."  ^  Professor  Schmiedel,  again,  is 
prepared  to  admit  that  the  We-sections  are  the  work  of  an 
eye-witness,  whilst  at  the  same  time  he  refuses  to  admit  that 
they  come  to  us  from  the  same  hand  as  that  to  which  we 
owe  the  rest  of  the  book.^  Here  language,  identity  of  style, 
medical  phraseology,  to  say  nothing  of  Church  tradition,  are 
all  against  him  ;  and  all  this  remains,  even  if  we  ignore  the 
fact  that  such  a  skilful  writer  as  the  author  of  the  third  Gospel 
and  the  Acts  would  not  have  allowed  these  We-sections  to 
remain  as  they  are,  unless  we  are  also  prepared  to  believe, 
with  Schmiedel,  that  he  left  the  pronoun  "  we  "  untouched, 
with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  passing  himself  off  as  the 
author  of  the  whole  book.  If  so,  it  was  a  clumsy,  no  less 
than  an  unworthy,  effort. 

Now  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  all  we  know  of  St.  Luke 
in  the  New  Testament  at  least  fits  in  with  this  supposition 
that  he  was  the  author  of  the  We-sections,  and  also,  as  we 
believe,  of  the  rest  of  the  book.  We  at  least  gather  this 
much  from  those  Epistles  which,  as  we  have  seen,  we  may 
justly  claim  as  authentic,  that  St.  Luke  was  present  with 
St.  Paul  at  Rome,  not  only  in  his  last  imprisonment,  but 
also  in  his  earlier.  When  he  writes  from  Rome  to  Colosse  he 
mentions  Luke  in  the  Colossian  Epistle,  and  also  in  the 
little  note  to  Philemon  ;  and  thus  St.  Luke  is  present  with 
St.  Paul  in  the  city,  where  the  Acts  leaves  both  the  great 
Apostle  and  apparently  the  author  of  the  book.  St.  Luke 
is  described  as  the  "beloved  physician  "  (Col.  iv.  14) ;  so  that 
there  is  no  difficulty  in  regarding  him  as  a  man  of  wide 
culture  and  sympathy,  characteristics  strongly  manifested  by 
the  author  of  the  Acts,  whoever  he  may  have  been.      At  this 

^  Introduction  to  New  Testatment,  p.  211.  Since  this,  however, 
Dr.  Bacon  seems  to  have  altered  his  opinions,  and  declines  to  regard 
Luke  as  the  Diarist  {Story  of  St.  Paul,  p.  156  [1905]),  although  the 
latter,  he  still  holds,  must  have  been  closely  connected  with  St.  Paul. 
See,  further,  Lecture  XXIV. 

2  Art.  "  Acts,"  EncycL  BibL,  i.  44. 


i64     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

time,  vis.  when  St.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Colossians,  probably 
the  only  Christian  physician  living  was  St.  Luke.  Moreover, 
when  we  examine  the  contents  of  the  third  Gospel  and  the 
Acts,  wc  find  that  they  bear  out  St.  Paul's  description  in  a 
remarkable  manner. 

Many  years  ago  the  Dublin  scholar,  Dr.  Hobart,  wrote 
his  book  entitled  the  Medical  Language  of  St.  Luke.  In  his 
recent  review  of  Dr.  Chase's  book  on  the  Acts,  H.  Holtzmann 
tells  us  that  Dr.  Hobart  claimed  to  have  "  discovered "  a 
medical  language  in  St.  Luke.  And  to  the  same  effect 
Dr.  Schmiedel  has  recently  spoken.  But  these  distinguished 
critics  entirely  ignore  the  fact  that  this  "  discovery  "  at  least 
dates  back  to  the  days  of  their  own  distinguished  country- 
men, J.  J.  Wetstein  and  Bengel,  both  of  whom  draw  attention 
to  the  remarkable  accuracy  with  which  Luke  as  a  physician 
describes  various  diseases.^  Let  us  take  one  or  two  in- 
stances to  illustrate  the  characteristics  of  the  writer  of  the 
book  in  question. 

St.  Matthew  and   St.  Mark   always  use  the  popular  word 

for  a  paralytic  ;   St.  Luke  alone  of  New  Testament  writers 

always  introduces  the  technical  term  employed  by  four  of 

the  great  medical  writers  of  antiquity,  and  denoting  a  man 

that  was  palsied.      Each  of  the  first  three   Gospels  gives  our 

Lord's  saying,  "  They  that  are  whole  need   not  a  physician." 

St.  Matthew  and   St.   Mark  give  us  identical  words  in   the 

Greek,   and   employ   the   same  verb  to  express  "  they  that 

are  whole."      When  we  turn  to  St.  Luke,  we  find  that  he 

introduces  another  word   to  express  the  same  phrase,  "  they 

that  are  whole,"   the   distinctly    medical   term   for  being  in 

good   health   in  contrast  to  the  verb  "  to  be  sick."      It   may 

no  doubt  be  said   that  the  same  term  occurs  in  the  LXX 

1  It  is  important  to  notice  that  Dr.  Clemen  cannot  entirely  get  rid 
of  the  existence  and  significance  of  this  medical  language  in  Acts 
{Paulus,  i.  163),  and  that  Professor  Bacon  writes,  "There  is  some 
weight  in  the  argument  for  the  tradition  based  on  the  '  medical 
language'  of  the  final  author"  {Story  0/  St.  Paul,  p.  158  [1905]). 


THE   ACTS   OF  THE   APOSTLES  165 

in  the  same  sense.  No  doubt  it  does  ;  but  that  does  not 
account  for  its  special  usage  by  St.  Luke,  for  he  alone 
amongst  New  Testament  writers  uses  it  in  its  primary 
sense,  with  the  exception  of  one  passage  in  3  John  verse  2  ; 
and  there  are,  after  every  deduction  has  been  made,  a 
large  number  of  medical  terms  in  St.  Luke  which  are  not 
found  at  all  in  the  LXX.  Moreover,  these  medical  terms 
occur  in  every  part  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel  and  the  Acts.  In 
the  healing,  e.g.,  of  Aeneas  of  Lydda  we  have  not  only 
the  characteristic  note  of  time — the  disease  had  lasted  eight 
years — but  also  the  characteristic  word  as  noted  above  to 
describe  one  sick  of  the  palsy.  In  the  miracle  at  the 
neighbouring  Joppa,  the  restoration  of  Tabitha  to  life,  we 
have  a  verb  used  only  by  St.  Luke  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  which  was  employed  by  Hippocrates  and  Galen  in 
this  rare  intransitive  sense  of  a  patient  sitting  up  in  bed. 
The  father  of  Publius  lay  sick  of  fever  and  dysentery. 
The  verb  for  "  lay  sick  "  in  this  account  was  constantly 
used  by  medical  writers  in  connection  with  disease,  and 
it  is  used  here  (Acts  xxviii.  8  ;  Luke  iv.  38)  of  a  person 
ill  of  fever. 

But  this  is  not  all  that  may  be  said.  A  plural  noun 
is  here  used  for  fever,  and  in  the  case  of  one  person  this 
seems  strange.  But  it  is  quite  medical,  and  St.  Luke 
alone  of  New  Testament  writers  makes  use  of  it,  although 
each  of  the  other  Evangelists  introduces  the  singular  noun. 
In  the  same  manner  St.  Luke  alone  uses  the  expression 
"  a  great  fever,"  to  mark  a  distinction  constantly  drawn 
by  medical  men  between  different  classes  of  fever.  The 
noun  "  dysentery,"  again,  is  peculiar  to  St.  Luke  in  the 
New  Testament ;  but  it  is  often  found  in  medical  writers, 
joined,  as  here,  with  fever,  whilst  Hippocrates  furnishes  us 
with  a  medical  phrase  closely  parallel  to  the  language 
in  the  Acts  in  describing  a  person  lying  sick  of  dysentery. 

It  is  an  interesting,  and  not  an   improbable,  suggestion 


i66    TESTIMONY   OF   ST    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

that  the  physician  Dioscorides,  who  was  born  at  Anazarbus 
in  Cilicia,  may  have  been  a  fellow  student  with  St.  Luke 
and  St.  Paul  at  the  great  university  of  Tarsus.  But 
however  this  may  have  been,  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  some 
ten  or  eleven  words  peculiar  to  the  Acts  are  also  found  in 
the  preface  to  the  treatise  of  Dioscorides,  entitled  De 
Materia  Medica} 

But   if  we  are  prepared  to  admit  that  the  writer  of  the 
We-sections   is  identical  with  the  writer  of  the  rest  of  the 
Acts,  then  we  must  remember  that   these  sections,  so  life- 
like, so   marked   by  closeness   of  observation   and   accurate 
terminology,   are  also   full   of  the    miraculous.      Take   as  a 
single    instance     the     famous     shipwreck     (chapter     xxvii). 
What  can  be  more  arbitrary  than   Holtzmann's  attempt  to 
eliminate  certain   sections  because  they  purport  to  describe 
miraculous   events  ?       These   passages  in    the   two    chapters 
(xxvii.  and  xxviii.)  are  closely  connected   with  the  general 
narrative  ;    they    are    characterised    by    the    same    medical 
terms     and     by     a     similar     accuracy     of     detail.        "  The 
miraculous    cures    in    Malta,"    writes    Weizsacker,    "  are    an 
historically  inseparable  portion  of  the  Apostle's  life."      It  is 
a  remarkable  admission  in  relation  to  the  subject  before  us, 
although    the   same  critic    is   evidently   sceptical   as   to  the 
nature  of  the  cures,  and   believes  that  this  narrative  served 
as   a  model   for  the  exaggerations   in  other  portions  of  the 
book.      But  might  it   not   be   said   with  great  fairness  that 
if  we   find   in   the   We-sections    evidence  of  trustworthiness 
and    carefulness  combined   inseparably  with  a  belief  in  the 
miraculous,  we  ought  not  to  be  surprised — nay,  rather,  we 
might   expect — to  find    the    same    combination    elsewhere  ? 
And   if  so,   why   should   we   suppose   that    the   writer,   who 
could  be  so  accurate  in  describing,  say,  the  riot  at   Ephesus 

'  For  a  further  (;xamination  in  detail  of  St.  Luke's  medical  language, 
the  present  writer  ventures  to  refer  to  two  articles  in  the  Biblical 
World  {Chica.go),  1902,  and  also  to  Critical  Questions,  p.  78  (1903), 
and  to  the  Expositor's  Greek  Test.,  vol.  ii. 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  167 

— a  description  confirmed  by  ,a  host  of  inscriptions — should 
have  taken  no  trouble  to  inquire  as  to  the  nature  and 
number  of  the  miracles — the  special  miracles,  as  they  are 
called — which  were  wrought  in  Ephesus  (xix.  11)  by  the 
agency  of  Paul ? 

But  it  is  not  simply  in  the  rejection  of  the  miraculous 
element  in  its  pages  that  we  have  abundant  and  just  cause 
to  complain  of  the  arbitrary  and  baseless  methods  adopted 
by  advanced  critics  with  regard  to  this  book  of  the  Acts. 

When  we  turn  to  the  pages  of  Van  Manen's  Paulus,  i. 
{De  Handelingen  der  Apostelen,  p.  199  ff)  we  find  that  he  offers 
us  a  sketch  of  no  less  than  three  Pauls  as  the  outcome  of  his 
inquiry.  First  of  all,  Paul,  the  historical  Paul,  appears  as 
a  disciple  among  the  disciples  ;  there  is  no  mention  of  the 
existence  of  "  Christians."  We  have  before  us  simply  a  sect 
among  the  Jews,  distinguished  simply  by  the  acceptance  of 
Jesus  as  the  Messiah,  whose  "  sons  "  or  disciples  they  were 
considered  to  be.  This  acceptance  of  the  claims  of  Jesus 
not  only  distinguished  them  from  other  Jews,  but  laid  upon 
them  the  obligation  of  a  strict  morality  and  of  mutual  affec- 
tion. To  this  circle  of  brethren  Paul  joins  himself ;  he 
travels  through  various  lands  with  varying  success  and  ex- 
periences. But  these  events  in  his  life  are  imperfectly  known 
to  us,  and  with  the  account  of  them  strange  and  later 
elements  have  mingled. 

Some  time  elapses.  The  first  generation,  and  perhaps 
more,  is  concluded.  Amongst  the  disciples  outside  Palestine 
an  inclination  is  manifested  to  cut  themselves  loose  from 
Judaism  and  to  break  with  tradition.  There  is  a  separation 
from  Judaism  under  the  varied  influences  of  Greek  and 
Roman  culture.  The  Gospel  of  God's  grace  is  born,  the 
glad  tidings  to  all  that  the  Most  High  God  has  sent  His  Son, 
that  through  Him  men  might  be  saved,  and  the  disciples 
from  a  sect  of  the  Jews  become  "  Christians  "  (Acts  xi.  26). 
Those  who   followed   this   movement  associated   themselves 


i68     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

with  the  name  of  Paul  ;  he  was  the  hero,  the  patron  of  the 
whole  matter.  And  thus  may  be  explained  the  dimness  and 
obscurity  in  the  figure  of  Paul  as  we  find  it  in  the  Acts 
named  after  him  ;  for  these  Acts,  while  they  contain  something 
of  what  was  known  by  tradition,  are  also  magnified  and 
elaborated  in  relation  to  Paul  by  those  Christian  disciples 
through  whom  Paulinism  was  really  born  after  Paul  had 
passed  away.  The  introduction  of  Paul's  name  in  connection 
with  this  Pauline  movement  seemed  to  give  such  a  movement 
a  root  in  the  past,  whilst  its  advocates  knew  quite  well  that 
it  was  really  new. 

Again  the  years  pass  by  ;  the  strife  between  Paulinism 
and  Judaism  has  lost  its  importance,  and  can  be  laid  aside  ; 
Peter  is  regarded  as  the  patron  of  the  "  disciples,"  as  Paul 
had  been  of  the  "  Christians,"  and  the  Acts  of  Peter  are 
modelled  more  and  more  upon  the  Acts  of  Paul.  Luke 
girds  himself  to  the  task  of  making  a  book  in  which  he  joins 
together  the  two  lives  of  Paul  and  Peter  as  the  two  parts 
of  one  complete  whole,  the  oldest  history  of  the  Christian 
Church,  of  its  establishment  and  spread  throughout  the  world. 
To  Peter  Luke  gives  Pauline  features  ;  to  Paul  words  and 
hints  by  which  that  Apostle  resembles  Peter,  and  is  scarcely 
distinguished  in  any  special  manner  from  the  other  "  dis- 
ciples." He  is  the  man  who,  next  to  Peter,  is  the  founder  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  uniting  the  old  and  the  new,  the  views 
of  "disciples  "  with  those  of  "  Christians."  In  other  words, 
this  threefold  representation  of  Paul  in  our  canonical  Acts  : 
(i)  as  the  missionary  Paul,  (2)  as  the  hero  of  the  Acts  of 
Paul,  (3)  as  the  Paul  drawn  for  us  by  Luke — gives  us  a  sur- 
prising insight  into  the  oldest  history  of  our  religion.  The 
old  Catholic  tradition  of  the  Church  is  wrong,  but  so  is  also 
the  TiJbingen  interpretation  of  that  early  Church  history. 
There  was  strife  between  Peter  and  Paul,  but  not  between 
the  actual  bearers  of  those  names.  They  lived  and  worked 
in  company  with  others  as  "  disciples  "  and  "  sons  "  of  Jesus, 


THE    ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  169 

and  no  dogmatic  differences  divided  them  ;  only  after  their 
departure  was  Paulinism  born  and  thrown  as  an  apple  of 
discord  amongst  those  who  should  have  lived  as  brethren. 

This  sketch  of  Van  Manen's  conclusions  from  his  study  of 
the  Acts  speaks  for  itself;  it  is  based,  as  those  who  read  it 
can  scarcely  fail  to  see,  upon  a  whole  series  of  imaginary 
conjectures,  and  its  mere  recital  is  perhaps  its  best  refutation. 
To  take  one  crucial  point  :  in  this  threefold  representation 
of  Paul  there  is  no  answer  given  to  the  question  which  rises 
naturally  to  the  lips  :  What  was  there  in  the  first  or  original 
Paul  which  marked  him  out  for  the  high  distinction  which  it 
is  affirmed  was  conferred  upon  him  ?  Why  did  the  "  Chris- 
tians," representing,  as  we  are  told,  such  diverse  and  cultured 
influences,  fix  upon  this  wandering  Jew,  this  travelling 
missionary  amongst  the  Jews,  as  their  patron  and  their 
exponent  of  whatever  was  good  and  expedient  in  word  and 
deed  ? 

But  the  same  arbitrariness  and  subjectivity  are  manifested 
by  other  modern  critics  even  in  relation  to  particular  passages 
of  the  Acts,  where  we  might  well  be  surprised  to  find  them. 
Take  as  a  single  instance  St.  Paul's  address  to  the  elders 
at  Miletus  (Acts  xx.) 

The  address  is  inferior  to  no  part  of  the  book,  not  even 
to  chapter  xxvii.,  in  vividness  of  expression  and  intensity  of 
feeling.  Yet  we  are  asked  by  the  partitive  critics  to  believe 
that  the  whole  speech  as  we  have  it  is  the  work  of  one  or 
more  redactors  !  Thus  the  first  half  of  verse  19  is  the  work 
of  one  redactor  ;  the  latter  part  of  the  same  verse  is  the 
work  of  another  redactor.  Redactor  Anti-Judaicus,  because 
it  mentions  plots  of  the  Jews  ;  verses  26-7  are  to  be  regarded 
as  an  additional  gloss  because  they  break  the  connection 
between  the  counsel  of  verse  28  and  the  motive  expressed 
in  verse  25.  Verses  33-5  are  to  share  the  same  fate,  because 
the  prayer  mentioned  in  verse  36  ought  to  follow  directly 
upon   verse   32.      In  other  words,  the   whole  of   St.   Paul's 


170    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

exquisite  appeal,  "  I  coveted  no  man's  silver  or  gold  or 
apparel ;  ye  yourselves  know  that  these  hands  ministered 
unto  my  necessities,  and  to  those  that  were  with  me,"  is  to 
be  omitted,  because  the  Apostle  had  previously  said,  "  And 
now  I  commend  you  to  God,  and  to  the  word  of  His  grace," 
and  because  at  the  end  of  the  speech  we  read,  "  And  when 
he  had  thus  spoken,  he  kneeled  down,  and  prayed  with  them 
all."  The  prayer,  according  to  the  critics,  ought  to  have 
followed  directly  upon   the  commendation  ! 

In  reading,  not  without  some  impatience,  these  partitive 
theories,  whether  they  divide  the  speeches  amongst  a  whole 
series  of  writers  or  whether  they  divide  the  Paul  of  the  Acts 
himself  into  at  least  three  different  Pauls,  we  are  irresistibly 
reminded  of  some  remarks  of  Charlotte  Bronte  in  one  of  her 
letters  ^ :  "  How  I  laugh  in  my  sleeve  when  I  read  the  solemn 
assertion  that  Jane  Eyre  was  written  in  partnership,  and  that 
it  bears  the  mark  of  more  than  one  mind  and  one  sex.  The 
wise  critics  would  certainly  sink  a  degree  in  their  own 
estimation  if  they  knew  that  yours  or  Mr.  Smith's  was  the 
first  masculine  hand  that  touched  the  MS.  oi  Jane  Eyre,  and 
that  till  you  or  he  read  it  no  masculine  eye  had  scanned 
a  line  of  its  contents,  no  masculine  ear  had  heard  a  phrase 
from  its  pages.  However,  if  they  like,  I  am  not  unwilling 
they  should  think  a  dozen  ladies  and  gentlemen  aided  in 
the  compilation  of  the  book.  Strange  patchwork,  it  must 
seem  to  them,  this  chapter  being  penned  by  Mr.  and  that 
by  Miss  or  Mrs.  Bell  ;  that  character  or  scene  being  delineated 
by  the  husband,  that  other  by  the  wife !  the  gentleman,  of 
course,  doing  the  rough  work,  the  lady  getting  up  the  finer 
parts.      I   admire  the  idea  greatly  ! " 

But  the  mention  of  the  address  at  Miletus  is  of  interest 

also  from  other  points  of  view,       St.  Luke  may  well   have 

been   present  at  it ;  and   not  only  so,  but  the  address  itself 

contains  many  subtle  points  of  connection  with  the   Epistle 

1  Shorter's  Charlotte  Bronte  and  her  Circle,   p.  169. 


THE   ACTS    OF   THE    APOSTLES  171 

to  the  Ephesians  ;  and  in  addition  to  these  resemblances  in 
language  and  thought,  both  to  this  Epistle  and  to  St.  Paul's 
other  Epistles,  there  is  a  manifestation  of  the  same  religious 
temper  and  a  combination  of  the  same  human  qualities. 
We  may  note  also  how  strikingly  in  his  speech  the  attitude 
of  the  Apostle  towards  his  journey  to  Jerusalem  (xx.  17  ff) 
accords  with  the  tone  of  Rom.  xv.  30 — a  coincidence  so 
carefully  enforced  by  Dr.  Hort,  and  earlier  still  by  Paley. 

No  portions  of  the  Acts  have  been  attacked  more  fiercely 
than  St.  Paul's  addresses.  But  it  is  noteworthy  that  as  in 
the  address  at  Miletus  we  have  subtle  points  of  contact 
with  the  Ephesian  Epistle,  so  in  the  speech  at  Pisidian 
Antioch  we  had  the  same  phenomenon,  viz.  the  connection 
traceable  between  that  speech  and  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians. 

And  when  we  consider  the  addresses  of  St.  Paul  to  the 
pagan  world  at  Lystra  and  at  Athens,  we  are  again  struck 
with  the  remarkable  fitness  of  tone  and  language.  If  these 
addresses  had  been  invented,  if  they  had  been  put  into  the 
mouth  of  St.  Paul  by  a  second-century  writer,  we  may 
depend  upon  it  that  they  would  have  contained  much  more 
that  was  definitely  and  doctrinally  Christian  ;  whereas  in  the 
two  speeches  there  is  only  one  definite  and  doctrinal 
Christian  allusion  in  the  reference  to  the  judgment  of  the 
world  by  the  man  whom  God  had  ordained  (Acts  xvii.  31). 

But  this  perfect  naturalness  and  fitness  extend  also  to 
the  earlier  speeches  of  the  book — those  of  St.  Peter  in  the 
opening  chapters,  which  give  us,  according  to  the  admission 
of  hostile  critics,  a  Christology  which  must  have  come  from 
a  primitive  source. 

This  is  frankly  admitted,  e.g.,  by  Professor  Schmiedel. 
But  whilst  he  thus  acknowledges  the  early  Christology 
which  marks  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Acts,  Schmiedel  goes 
on  to  tell  us  that  the  author  of  that  book  has  not  put,  even 
into  the  mouth  of  Paul,  any  utterances  that  go  beyond  it, 


172     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

and  he  refers  in  proof  to  two  passages  (xiii.  23  and  xxii.  14). 
Now  the  first  of  these  passages  occurs  in  the  address  of 
St.  Paul  at  the  Pisidian  Antioch.  Here  the  Apostle  was 
addressing  a  Jewish  audience,  and  nothing  was  more  natural 
than  that  he  should  speak  of  Jesus  as  a  Saviour.  The 
expression  would  be  naturally  connected  with  the  current 
Messianic  hopes,  as  we  may  learn  both  from  Jewish  liturgy 
and  Jewish  literature. 

So,  again,  in  the  second  passage,  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  that  the  Jew  Ananias,  when  he  visits  the 
converted  Saul,  should  tell  him,  "  The  God  of  our  fathers 
hath  appointed  thee  to  know  His  will  and  to  see  the 
Righteous  One,"  the  Righteous  One  being  a  name  for 
the  Messiah,  as  we  may  learn  from  the  Book  of  Enoch 
(xxxviii.  2  ;  liii.  6). 

But  Schmiedel  proceeds  to  tell  us  that  the  speeches  of 
Paul  in  the  Acts  embody  a  theology  quite  different  from 
that  of  his  Epistles,  and  that  the  speeches  of  the  Apostle, 
especially  that  in  xiii.  16-41,  are  so  like  those  of  Peter  in 
idea,  construction,  and  mode  of  expression  that  the  one 
might  easily  be  taken  for  the  other  {Encycl.  Bibl.,  i.  48). 

On  these  statements  one  or  two  remarks  may  be  made. 
In  the  first  place  we  must  remember  that  we  have  no 
Epistle  of  St.  Paul  addressed  exclusively  to  a  circle  or 
audience  of  his  own  countrymen.  But  the  speech  in  the 
synagogue  at  Pisidian  Antioch  was  addressed,  like  the 
earlier  speeches  of  St.  Peter,  to  an  exclusively  Jewish 
audience. 

We  should  therefore  naturally  expect  some  measure  of 
resemblance  between  the  addresses  of  Peter  and  Paul  to 
their  own  countrymen,  especially  when  we  remember  that 
these  addresses  are  evidently  regarded  as  introductory  to, 
and  preparatory  for,  further  Christian  teaching,  as  stating 
the  facts  and  the  whole  series  of  events  which  marked  out 
Jesus   as   the   Messiah.      But,   at   the   same    time,  there  are 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  173 

characteristic  differences  in  the  utterances  of  the  two  Apostles. 
Both,  e.g.,  speak  of  Jesus  Christ  as  bringing  remission  of 
sinsj;  but  St.  Paul  adds,  "  And  by  Him  every  one  that 
believeth  is  justified  from  all  things  from  which  ye  could 
not  be  justified  by  the  law  of  Moses  "  (Acts  ii.  38,  xiii.  38). 
If  it  is  said  that  the  latter  passage  is  falsely  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Paul,  we  can  only  say  that  it  is  strange  that  only 
once,  and  on  this  occasion  before  a  Jewish  audience,  we  find 
this  reference  to  the  Apostle's  favourite  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion. The  expression  of  it  occurs  here  in  Acts,  and  nowhere 
else  through  the  book.  So,  too,  both  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul 
lay  stress,  in  their  Jewish  addresses,  upon  the  witness  to  the 
Christ  afforded  by  one  and  the  same  Psalm,  the  i6th.  But 
here,  too,  there  is  a  difference,  for  each  writer  emphasises 
a  distinctive  thought :  "  St.  Peter  dwelt  on  the  majesty  of 
the  risen  Jesus,  St.  Paul  emphasises  the  thought  of  His 
life — His  life,  which  cannot  henceforth  know  death."  ^ 

It  is  curious,  we  may  remark  in  passing,  that  Schmiedel 
should  base  one  of  his  objections  against  St.  Paul's  speeches 
upon  the  fact  that  the  address  in  Pisidian  Antioch  betrays 
so  many  affinities  with  the  dying  speech  of  St.  Stephen. 
But  asfain  we  are  led  to  exclaim  what  more  natural,  at  least 
to  those  who  have  any  belief  in  the  historical  character  of 
the  Acts  ?  Both  St.  Stephen  and  St.  Paul  were  defending 
Christianity  before  a  Jewish  audience,  and  nothing  was  more 
likely  than  that  St.  Paul,  if,  as  we  believe,  he  had  heard  St, 
Stephen  in  his  last  hours,  would  have  been  impressed  with 
the  martyr's  words,  and  that  we  should  be  able  (as  is  the 
case)  to  find  traces  of  that  impression  in  St.  Paul's  language 
both  in  the  Acts  and  in  the  Epistle. 

But,  once  more,  it  is  evident  that  if  we  limit  St.  Paul's 

Christology  to  such  passages  as  Acts  xiii.  23,  xxii.   14,  we 

eliminate  altogether  the  statement  in  which   the  Apostle  is 

said  to  have  preached  Jesus  as  the   Son  of  God,  and  with 

>  Chase,  Credibility  of  Acts,  ^.  187. 


174     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  refusal  to  go  beyond  this  primitive  Christology  >we 
belittle  the  force  of  those  passages  in  the  early  addresses  of 
his  fellow  Apostle  St.  Peter,  which  regard  Old  Testament 
prophecies  relating  to  Jehovah  as  fulfilled  in  Jesus.  All  this 
is  arbitrary  enough,  but  it  is  perhaps  even  more  arbitrary 
thus  to  exclude  all  consideration  of  the  one  speech  in  which 
St.  Paul  addresses  not  Jews  or  Gentiles  as  such,  but 
Christians  and  the  representatives  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Dr.  Chase,  in  his  admirable  lectures  on  the  Credibility  of  Acts, 
has  pointed  out  that  in  his  address  to  the  Ephesian  elders 
in  Acts  XX.  we  come  across  words  which,  as  it  were,  complete 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  Sonship  expressed  in  St.  Paul's 
earlier  addresses  :  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God  in  a  unique  and 
absolute  sense  ;  the  Ephesian  elders  are  bidden  to  feed  the 
Church  of  God,  which  He  purchased  with  the  blood  of  His 
now  Son  (xx.  28).^  But  striking  as  this  is,  the  passage  in 
question  may  receive,  as  we  know,  a  higher  explanation  still, 
and  our  own  Revised  Version  reads,  "  to  feed  the  Church  of 
God  which  He  purchased  with  His  •  own  blood."  It  may 
of  course  be  urged  that  St.  Paul  was  not  likely  thus  to  refer 
to  Jesus  as  God.  But  is  this  so  certain  ?  Twice  in  his 
Epistles  the  Apostle  may  have  done  so — in  writing  to  the 
Romans  (ix.  5),  and  again  in  writing  to  Titus  (ii.  13)  ;  and  with 
regard  to  the  former  at  least  of  these  passages,  some  remark- 
able testimony  can  be  quoted  in  favour  of  such  an  inter- 
pretation. Do  you  say  that  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord's  Deity 
in  St.  Paul  should  not  be  made  to  depend  upon  one  or 
more  disputed  texts?  It  does  not.  Let  us  never  forget 
that  St.  Paul  was  a  Jew.  It  must  have  been  hard  for  him 
to  accept  a  crucified  fellow  countryman  as  the  Messiah  for 
himself  and  for  the  world  ;  it  must  have  been  hard  for  him 
as  a  Monotheist  to  see  the  fulfilment  in  a  crucified  Jew  of 

'  Credibility  of  Acts,  p.  282  ff ;  cf.,  also,  the  remarks  made  above  in 
text  on  Rom.  viii.  32,  where  we  have  the  same  Greek  adjective  iStor. 
So,  too,  in  John  v.  18  ;  and  see  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  p.  255. 


THE   ACTS   OF   THE   APOSTLES  175 

the  Old  Testament  prophecies  relating  to  the  Lord  God  of 
his  fathers.  His  loyalty  and  allegiance  to  Jehovah  alike 
demanded  an  answer  to  that  question  pressing  upon  him 
day  by  day,  as  he  came  into  contact  with  fresh  thought,  as 
he  embraced  new  activities  :  "  Who  art  Thou,  Lord  ?  " 
And  in  Jesus,  whom  he  had  persecuted,  he  had  learnt  to  see 
not  only  the  Messiah,  the  Christ,  but  the  Son  of  God,  who 
had  His  saints  in  Jerusalem,  in  Damascus,  in  Lydda  and 
Joppa,  in  Rome  and  Corinth,  in  Philippi  and  Thessalonica, 
in  Ephesus  and  Colosse.  And  these  sanctified  ones  were 
such  "  in  Christ  Jesus  "  (i  Cor.  i.  2),  just  as  Israel  of  old  had 
been  a  nation  of  saints  in  the  power  and  the  service  of  the 
Lord  Jehovah. 

How  marvellously  the  utterance  of  that  voice  had  found 
fulfilment — in  perils  from  the  Gentiles,  in  perils  in  the  city, 
in  perils  from  false  brethren,  in  perils  from  his  own  country- 
men ;  the  voice  which  had  come  to  the  Apostle  in  the 
solemn  hour  of  his  conversion,  bidding  him  open  the  eyes 
of  the  blind  "  that  they  might  receive  remission  of  sins  and 
an  inheritance  among  those  that  are  sanctified  by  faith  in 
Me"  (xxvi.    18). 

"  By  faith  in  Me."  No  wonder  that  as  St.  Paul  looked 
back  over  all  that  had  happened  since  that  great  crisis  in 
his  spiritual  history,  as  he  recognised  the  brightness  of  that 
light  as  the  brightness  above  that  of  the  sun  which  had  con- 
ferred upon  him,  as  upon  every  penitent,  such  joy  and  hope 
and  strength,  he  should  exclaim,  "  The  life  that  I  now  live  in 
the  flesh  I  live  in  faith,  the  faith  which  is  in  the  Son  of  God, 
who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  up  for  me  "  (Gal.  ii.  20). 

No  one  has  helped  to  emphasise  this  conviction  more 
than  Dr.  Harnack.  "  Above  all,"  he  writes,  "  Jesus  was  felt 
to  be  the  active  principle  of  individual  life."  "  It  is  not  I 
that  liveth,  but  Christ  who  liveth  in  me,"  he  adds,  quoting 
the  words  of  St.  Paul  :  "  He  is  my  life,  and  to  press  onwards 
to  Him  through  death  is  great  gain." 


176    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

And  both  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  bear  witness  loud  and 
full  to  the  working  of  that  active  principle  of  individual  life. 
Men  and  women  of  every  social  grade,  of  varying  nationalities, 
of  wide  and  varied  culture,  pass  before  us  with  their  sins, 
their  follies,  their  trials  and  temptations,  and  we  feel  that 
in  so  far  as  Christ  liveth  in  them  they  become  even  here 
and  now  "  children  of  the  resurrection  " — of  that  resurrection, 
which  no  one  could  deny,  from  uncleanness  to  holiness, 
from  the  death  of  sin  to  the  life  of  righteousness.  In  the 
renewing  and  transforming  of  this  great  multitude  of  human 
souls,  in  the  building  up  of  the  Christian  character,  in  the 
earnest  desire  for  the  best  gifts  and  for  a  still  more 
excellent  way,  we  mark  influences  far  reaching,  never 
ceasing,  "  Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  which  no  lapse  of  time 
can  efface  and  destroy.  Epistles  "  known  and  read  of  all 
men." 

No  wonder  that  even  Dr.  Schmiedel  is  constrained  to  tell 
us  that  the  value  of  the  Acts  as  a  devout  edifying  work 
cannot  be  impaired  by  criticism,  and  that  sayings  such  as 
we  find  in  its  pages  are  of  the  deepest  that  can  be  said 
about  the  inner  Christian   life.^ 

'  "Acts"  in  Encycl.  Bibl.,  \.  58-9.      See  also  Pfleiderer,  Urchris- 
tetitum,  i.  549. 


Second   Series 

St.   Paul's  Testimony  in  Relation  to 
the  Gospels 


12 


LECTURE    IX 

THE    CONVERSION   OF  ST.    PAUL 

BEHIND  the  witness  and  the  work  of  St.  Paul  there 
stands  one  great  historical  fact,  upon  which  both 
witness  and  work  depend — his  conversion.  We  have  three 
accounts  of  this  event  in  the  Acts,  and  it  would  be  easy  to 
point  to  critics  of  the  first  rank,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
who  affirm  that,  in  spite  of  differences  in  detail,  the  essential 
facts  in  these  accounts  are  the  same.  The  remarks  of 
Professor  Ramsay  are  not  a  whit  too  strong ;  the  slight 
variations  in  the  three  accounts  of  Paul's  conversion  do  not 
seem  to  be  of  any  consequence — the  spirit  and  tone  and  the 
essential  facts  are  the  same  {St.  Paul,  p.  379).  No  one  has 
helped  us  to  realise  this  more  fully  than  the  famous  German 
scholar  Dr.  Blass,  and  the  variations  to  which  he  frankly 
draws  attention  are  so  natural  that  they  increase  rather  than 
militate  against  the  general  impression  of  the  truthfulness  of 
the  whole  narrative.  Take,  e.g.,  the  mention  of  Ananias  of 
Damascus.  When  he  is  first  introduced  in  St.  Luke's  own 
account  of  the  conversion,  he  is  simply  described  as  "  a 
certain  disciple  "  (Acts  ix.  10).  When  St.  Paul,  later  on,  is 
making  his  defence  in  the  presence  of  a  Jewish  crowd  in 
Jerusalem,  before  which  it  was  obviously  important  to  em- 
phasise the  description  of  Ananias  and  the  part  he  played, 
he  is  described  as  "  a  devout  man  according  to  the  law,  well 
reported  of  by  all  the  Jews  "  (Acts  xxii.  12).     But  in  the  still 

later    narrative,   when    St.   Paul    stands  before    Festus    and 

179 


i8o     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Agrippa,  no  reference  whatever  is  made  to  Ananias  (Acts 
xxvi.  12  ff),  probably  because  the  mention  of  his  name  would 
carry  no  weight  with  such  an  audience. 

It  is,  moreover,  important  in  this  connection  to  observe  that 
in  St.  Paul's  two  great  speeches,  before  the  Jews  in  Jerusalem 
and  Festus  and  Agrippa  at  Csesarea  which  describe  his  past 
life,  there  is  a  remarkable  return  to  the  phraseology  and 
ideas  of  the  earlier  chapters  of  the  Acts,  especially  of  chapter 
ix.  And  this  similarity  extends  not  only  to  a  whole  section 
like  ix.  3-9,  the  account  of  the  appearance  of  the  Lord  on 
the  way  to  Damascus  ;  but  in  chapter  xxii.  we  have  such 
characteristically  earlier  expressions  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
the  God  of  our  fathers,  the  Righteous  One,  thou  shalt  be  a 
witness,  to  call  upon  His  name,  and  similar  expressions  in 
chapter  xxvi.^ 

Or  we  may  turn  to  the  writer  of  the  first  part  of  the 
article  "  Paul  "  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.  He  tells  us  of  these 
three  accounts  that  while  "  they  all  differ  in  detail,  they 
all  agree  in  substance.  The  differences  are  fatal  to  the 
stricter  theories  of  verbal  inspiration,  but  they  do  not 
constitute  a  valid  argument  against  the  general  truth  of  the 
narrative." 

I  am  quite  aware  that  the  author  of  the  article  "  Resur- 
rection "  in  the  same  EncyclopcEdia  tells  us  of  these  same 
accounts,  "  that  they  contradict  one  another  so  violently  that 
it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  it  could  ever  have  been  possible 
for  an  author  to  take  them  up  into  his  book  in  their  present 
form "  (iv.  4063).  Without  making  capital,  as  one  fairly 
might,  out  of  "  the  violent  contradiction  "  between  these  two 
critics  in  the  same  Encyclopcedia,  it  may  suffice  to  say  that 
St.  Luke,  who  was  no  mean  historian,  evidently  found  it 
quite  possible  "  to  take  up  into  his  book "  the  three 
narratives.  And  even  if  we  admit  for  a  moment  that 
St.  Luke  was  not  their  author  in  their  present  form,  what  a 
'  Rackham,  Acts,  p.  xlvi. 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   ST.   PAUL  i8i 

strange  man  the  final  redactor  of  the  book  must  have  been 
to  allow  these  flagrant  inconsistencies  in  the  narrative  to 
remain   under  his  very  eyes  ! 

So  far  as  St.  Paul's  own  references  to  his  conversion  are 
concerned,  we  are  met  again  and  again  with  the  same 
phenomenon,  which  is  so  characteristic  of  many  recent 
attacks  upon  the  historical  facts  of  early  Christianity,  viz. 
that  the  same  objections  are  brought  forward  again  and 
again  as  if  they  had  never  been  answered. 

Thus  it  is  urged  that  when  St.  Paul  writes  to  the 
Corinthians,  "  Am  I  not  an  Apostle  ?  Have  I  not  seen  Jesus 
our  Lord"  (i  Cor.  ix.  i),  the  true  key  to  the  understanding 
of  such  expressions  is  to  be  found  in  2  Cor.  xii.  i,  where  he 
writes,  "  I  must  needs  glory,  though  it  is  not  expedient  ;   but 

1  will  come  to  visions  and  revelations  of  the  Lord."  May 
not  the  Apostle,  it  is  urged,  have  "  seen  "  the  Lord  in  one  of 
these  visions — visions  with  regard  to  which  he  could  not  even 
affirm  whether  he  was  in  the  body  or  out  of  it  ? 

But,    as    a    matter   of   fact,    it    is    this    very    passage   in 

2  Corinthians  which  enables  us  to  draw  a  hard-and-fast 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  heavenly  visions  and 
revelations  vouchsafed  to  the  Apostle  from  time  to  time, 
and  the  "  seeing  "  the  Lord  to  which  he  refers  in  i  Cor.  ix.  i 
and  XV.  8. 

How,  e.g.,  are  We  to  account  for  the  essential  difference 
in  tone  with  regard  to  the  visions  and  revelations  in 
2  Corinthians,  of  which  he  speaks  with  the  utmost  reserve, 
of  which  it  is  not  expedient  that  he  should  glory,  and  the 
manner  in  which  he  places  in  the  forefront  of  his  preaching, 
and  regards  as  containing  the  basis  of  his  claim  to  the 
Apostolic  office,  such  words  as  these,  "  Am  I  not  an  Apostle  ? 
Have  I  not  seen  Jesus  our  Lord  ?  " 

No  one,  let  us  note  in  passing,  has  emphasised  this 
essential  distinction  between  the  words  in  2  Corinthians  and 
in    I    Corinthians    more    forcibly   than    the    great    classical 


i82    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

scholar  of  Germany,  Dr.  Blass  (Z>zV  heilige  Schrift  und  die 
evangelische  Kirche,  p.  12  ;  and  to  the  same  effect,  Weiss, 
Leben  Jesii,  ii.  583  ;  and  Zockler,  Paulus  der  Apostel  Jesu 
Christi,  pp.  2,  22). 

"Have  I  not  seen  Jesus  our  Lord?"  The  words  can 
scarcely  refer  to  a  seeing  of  Jesus  during  His  earthly  life.^ 
For  even  if  St.  Paul  had  so  "  seen  "  our  Lord,  what  he  is 
concerned  with  in  the  passage  before  us  is  his  claim  to  be 
an  Apostle,  and  a  witness  equally  with  the  Twelve  of  the 
^  Lord's  resurrection.  The  fact  that  he  had  seen  Jesus 
during  His  earthly  life  could  not  in  itself  have  justified 
Paul's  claim  to  Apostolic  rank  and  dignity  ;  it  could  not  in 
itself  have  afforded  any  ground  for  his  appeal  to  his  Apostolic 
authority.^ 

Moreover,  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  St.  Paul 
describes  the  appearance  of  Christ  thus  vouchsafed  to  him 
as  the  last  of  a  series.  He  does  not  say  in  i  Cor.  xv.  9 
that  Christ  appeared  to  him  the  last  ;  but  that  He  appeared 
to  him  for  the  last  time,  i.e.  as  in  a  series  which  was  now 
closed. 

An  attempt,  indeed,  has  recently  been  made  to  weaken 
the  force  of  the  expression  "  for  the  last  time  "  (eaxarov),  and 
to  make  it  simply  contain  a  reference  to  St.  Paul's  own 
unworthiness,  and  appeal  is  made  to  i  Cor.  iv.  9,  "  God  hath 
set  forth  us  the  Apostles  last  of  all  "  (eo'^ctrou?).^  But  the 
Greek  in  i  Cor.  xv.  9  is  quite  different.  The  Apostle,  although 
he  is  deeply  conscious  of  the  grace  of  God,  is  not  speaking 

1  On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  noted  that  Professor  Ramsay 
contends  that  St.  Paul  had  actually  seen'- in  Jerusalem  the  Jew  with 
whose  fame  Jerusalem  and  all  Judaea  were  ringing  ;  and  still  more 
recently  Dr.  Clemen  {^Paulus,  ii.  83)  considers  it  not  so  impossible 
that  St.  Paul  may  have  seen  and  even  heard  Jesus.  Pfleiderer 
{Urck?-tste/2ttim,  i.  60,  2nd  edit.,  1902)  holds  that  we  cannot  know; 
but  that  at  all  events  i  Cor.  ix.  can  only  relate  to  a  "  seeing"  of  the 
risen  Christ  (see,  further,  Lecture  XXIV.). 

*  Einleitungin  das  N.T.,  Bleek-Mangold,  p.  475,  4th  edit. 

'  Ostern  und  Pfingsten,  p.  36,  E.  von  Dobschiitz  (1903). 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   ST.   PAUL  183 

of  the  unworthiness  of  the  Apostles,  but  rather  of  their 
claims  to  authority  and  of  the  appearances  of  Christ 
vouchsafed  to  him  and  to  them  alike  in  a  series  which  had 
now  closed  :  "  The  risen  Christ  never  reappeared."  ^ 

It  would,  therefore,  seem  that  we  are  fully  justified  in 
saying  that  there  must  have  been  something  which  diff- 
erentiated this  appearance  from  those  other  visions  of 
Christ,  which,  as  we  know,  were  not  lacking  in  the  early 
Church,  and  with  which,  no  doubt,  St.  Paul  was  familiar  ; 
otherwise  it  would  have  been  meaningless  to  speak  of  it  as 
final.  And  if  we  ask  what  was  the  distinction,  we  must 
remember  that  St.  Paul  classes  this  appearance  to  himself 
with  the  appearances  made  to  the  first  disciples.  The  same 
word  describes  them  all  (cf  i  Cor.  xv.  3-8) ;  and  if  he  had 
only  meant  that  the  exalted  Christ  had  appeared  to  him  in 
a  vision  ;  if  there  was  nothing  "  objective  "  about  it,  as  there 
was  to  the  first  disciples,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  he  should 
have  emphasised  the  fact  that  this  same  Christ  had  been 
buried  and  rose  again,  and  that  this  rising  had  taken  place 
on  the  third  day. 

Here,  again,  we  may  refer  to  the  testimony  of  a  learned 
layman  like  Dr.  Blass.  In  his  opinion  nothing  could  be 
clearer  than  that  St.  Paul  means  that  our  Lord's  body  rose 
from  the  grave  on  the  third  day.  How,  he  asks,  could  one 
speak  of  a  definite  moment  of  the  rising  of  a  spirit,  if 
one  could  speak  of  rising  again  in  such  a  case  at  all  ?  Or 
how  could  one  speak  of  the  revivification  of  that  which  is 
always  living  ?  " 

Is  it  said  that  the  Apostle  speaks  of  some  inward 
revelation  when  he  writes,  "  It  pleased  God  to  reveal  his  Son 
in  me  "  ?  (Gal.  i.  16).  In  the  first  place  it  may  be  fairly 
urged   that  even   if  he   does  so  in   this  particular  passage, 

•  Studies  m  the  Gos;pels,  p.  304,  E.T.,  Professor  Rose  (1903). 
^  Blass,  U.S.  p.  14  J  Zockler,  in  Herzog's  Realencyclo;pddie,  Heft  81, 
p.  36  (1900). 


i84    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

there  is  no  difficulty  whatever  in  supposing  that  the 
revelation  of  God  to  him  would  have  a  twofold  side,  the 
outward  and  the  inward.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that 
so  far  from  these  words  in  Galatians  proving  anything 
against  an  appearance  vouchsafed  to  the  senses,  they 
rather  show  that  without  this  inward  revelation  the  out- 
ward appearance  could  never  have  been  recognised  for 
what  it  was  in  its  full  meaning,  nor  could  the  Apostle 
have  been  assured  against  all  suspicion  of  an  illusion  of 
the  senses.^ 

Moreover,  it  is  most  important  to  note  that  in  his  words 
to  the  Galatians,  St.  Paul  plainly  associates  the  revelation 
of  the  Son  of  God  with  a  certain  place,  Damascus,  and  that, 
too,  as  Paley  long  ago  remarked,  quite  incidentally  i^Horm 
PaulincB,  v.  2).  St.  Paul  writes,  "  When  it  was  the  good 
pleasure  of  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me,  immediately  I 
conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood  ;  neither  went  I  up  to 
Jerusalem  to  them  which  were  Apostles  before  me  ;  but  I 
went  away  into  Arabia,  and  again  I  returned  to  Damascus." 
"  In  what  may  be  called  the  direct  part  of  the  account," 
says  Paley,  "  no  mention  is  made  of  the  place  of  his 
conversion  at  all  ;  a  casual  expression  at  the  end,  and  an 
expression  brought  in  for  a  different  purpose,  alone  fixes 
it  to  have  been   at  Damascus." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Paley  emphasises  the  extraordinary 
simplicity  and  undesignedness  of  this  coincidence  with  the 
narrative  in  the  Acts.  But  if  the  incident  narrated  in  the 
Acts  had  never  occurred,  what  need  to  mention  Damascus 
at  all  ?  The  inward  spiritual  grace  was  indelibly  associated 
in  St.  Paul's  mind  with  the  outward  and  visible  sign.^ 

'  Weiss,  Einleihmg  in  das  N.T.,  p.  112,  3rd  edit.  ;  Sieffert,  Der 
Brief  an  die  Galater,  p.  36  ;  Thackeray,  St.  Paul  and  Contemporary 
Jewish  Thought,  p.  8. 

*  McGiffert,  A;postolic  Age,  p.  121  :  "The  reference  to  Damascus 
in  Gal.  i.  17  indicates  that  the  appearance  took  place  in  or  near  that 
city,  as  stated  in  the  Acts." 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   ST.   PAUL  185 

In  this  connection  we  may  note  that  a  subtle  attempt 
has  been  recently  made  to  show  that  when  St.  Paul  writes, 
"  He  was  seen  of  me  also,"  he  was  referring,  no  doubt,  to  a 
vision,  but  to  something,  nevertheless,  which  he  regarded  as 
real.  "  The  only  thing,"  adds  Dr.  Schmiedel,  who  makes 
the  remark,  "  which  would  prevent  him  from  doing  so, 
would  be  if  the  vision  offered  that  which,  according  to  his 
ideas,  was  utterly  impossible."  "  But,"  he  continues,  "  in 
the  case  before  us,  this  is  far  from  being  so.  In  the  New 
Testament  the  resurrection  of  a  man — e.g.  of  the  Baptist 
or  of  Elijah — is  supposed  to  be  thoroughly  possible"  (Art. 
"  Gospels,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iii.  1879). 

Let  us  look  at  this  for  a  moment.  No  doubt  in  the 
New  Testament  we  find  reference  made  to  the  supposed 
resurrection  of  the  Baptist  ;  but  one  is  puzzled  to  know 
what  Schmiedel  means  by  the  resurrection  of  an  Elijah. 
Whatever  may  be  the  views  of  Professor  Schmiedel,  the  Jews, 
at  any  rate,  most  certainly  believed  that  Elijah  had  never 
died,  and  therefore  no  parallel  can  be  drawn  between 
Elijah's  ascension  to  heaven  and  the  appearances  after 
death  of  the  risen  Jesus.  And  so  far  as  the  Baptist  is 
concerned,  what  parallel  exists  between  the  statement  with 
regard  to  him  in  the  Gospels,  and  the  appearance  of  the 
risen  Jesus  vouchsafed  to  St.  Paul  in  i  Corinthians? 
Weizsacker  long  ago  argued  that  the  belief  that  John  the 
Baptist  had  risen  from  the  dead  is  an  instance  of  a  current 
belief  among  the  Jews  that  the  dead  would  rise  again  and 
appear  on  earth.  But  what  did  he  mean  on  his  own 
acknowledgment  ?  Simply  that  the  dead  would  return 
to  a  renewal  of  their  old  earthly  life.  No  doubt  the 
popular  belief  of  the  time  laid  stress  upon  the  resurrection 
of  the  body,  but  the  resurrection  would  not  take  place 
until  the  Messianic  kingdom  ;  or,  if  according  to  some 
statements,  the  resurrection  involved  the  spirit  alone,  or 
the  righteous  were  to  rise  with  their  former  bodies,  which 


186    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

were  to  be  transformed  like  those  of  the  angels,  yet  all 
this,  again,  was   to  take  place  at  the  final  judgment. 

Elsewhere,  indeed,  Schmiedel  tells  us  that  in  Jewish 
Christian  circles  a  conception  was  current  of  a  resurrection 
with  a  new  earthly  body,  in  accordance  with  which  Jesus 
was  taken  to  be  the  risen    Baptist  or  Elijah. 

But  if  we  ask  what  ground  there  is  for  referring  this 
conception  to  Jewish  Christians,  there  is  none.  In  the 
Gospels,  indeed,  we  have,  as  we  have  seen,  the  expression 
of  a  popular  belief  of  the  time — that,  and  nothing  more 
(cf  Mark  vi.  14-16).  But  even  if  this  popular  belief  had 
originated  in  Jewish  Christian  circles,  of  which  there  is 
certainly  no  hint  in  the  Gospels,  it  would  not  in  the  least 
account  for  the  statements  of  the  Evangelists  in  connection 
with  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord.  "  The  resurrection  as 
it  actually  took  place,"  writes  Dr.  Edersheim,  himself  a  Jew 
by  birth,  and  presumably  acquainted  with  Jewish  traditions 
and  belief,  "  would  be  quite  foreign  to  Jewish  ideas.  These 
embraced  the  continuance  of  the  soul  after  death  and  the 
final  resurrection  of  the  body,  but  not  a  state  of  spiritual 
corporeity,  far  less  under  conditions  such  as  those  described 
in  the  Gospels.  Elijah,  for  instance,  who  is  constantly 
introduced  in  Jewish  tradition,  is  never  represented  as 
sharing  in  meals  and  offering  his  body  for  touch."  ^ 

But  if  the  appearance  of  the  risen  Christ  to  St.  Paul 
was  a  mere  vision,  and  if  all  the  other  appearances  of  the 
risen  Saviour  are  to  be  regarded  in  the  same  light,  since 
one  and  the  same  word  is  used  by  St.  Paul  for  them  all, 
is  there  not  a  remarkable  omission  in  i  Cor.  xv.  ?  If  the 
Apostle  is  giving  us  in  that  list  a  complete  statement,  as 
Schmiedel  dogmatically  maintains,  should  we  not  have 
expected  him  to  say,  "  and  that  he  was  seen  by  Stephen  "  ? 

'  Jesus  the  Messiah,  ii.  624.  See  also  Heinrici,  Urchristentum, 
p.  38  (1902)  ;  Weiss,  Lebeti  Jesu,  ii.  561,  4th  edit.  ;  H.  A.  Kennedy, 
St.  PauPs  Co7iceptio7is  of  the  Last  Things,  p.  248  (1904),  as  against 
the  very  bold  assertions  of  Dr.  Percy  Gardner.     Cf.  Lecture  XXV. 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   ST.   PAUL  i8; 

We  know  from  St.  Paul's  own  words  what  an  impression 
the  scene  of  the  martyr's  death  had  made  upon  him.  We 
can  scarcely  doubt  that  St.  Paul  had  heard  the  assertion, 
"  Behold,  I  see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man 
standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God."  Why,  then,  is  no 
reference  made  to  St.  Stephen  in  the  list  of  i  Cor.  xv.  ? 
Is  'it  not  because  there  was  something  which  differentiated 
the  appearance  on  the  way  to  Damascus  from  the  vision 
granted  to  St.  Stephen,  something  which  classed  the  former 
with  the  accounts  of  the  appearances  as  they  are  represented 
in  the  Gospels  ? 

Dr.  Schmiedel  insists  with  all  the  force  of  his  assertive 
eloquence  that  it  is  inconceivable  that  St.  Paul  should  have 
passed  over  any  proofs  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  where- 
with to  silence  his  opponents  ;  why,  then,  we  ask  again,  is 
no  reference  made  to  the  witness  of  St.  Stephen,  sealed  as 
it  was  by  his  death,  and  known,  as  it  must  have  been,  to 
St.  Paul  ?  The  writer  of  the  article  "  Stephen "  in  the 
Encycl.  Bibl.  does  not  attempt  to  deny  that  Stephen  died 
in  a  fanatical  riot  for  his  own  word  and  confession  ;  and 
if  that  confession  was,  "  Hereafter,  ye  shall  see  the  heavens 
opened  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing  on  the  right  hand  of 
God,"  we  can  understand  that  the  charge  was  blasphemy, 
and  that  the  death  penalty  would  follow. 

But  it  is  urged  that  St.  Paul  was  prepared  for  the  appear- 
ance on  the  road  to  Damascus.  Doubts  had  been  working 
in  his  mind  for  some  time  previously.  What  if  the  Christians 
whom  he  persecuted,  those  Christians  who  were  so  blameless 
in  life  and  conversation,  so  joyous  and  steadfast  in  their 
faith,  were  right  ?  What  if  those  heartrending  scenes,  as 
Schmiedel  calls  them,  which  must  have  been  enacted  when 
Saul  haled  both  men  and  women  before  the  judgment  seat, 
should  have  led  him  to  ask  himself  whether  the  authority 
from  the  chief  priests  was  rightly  bestowed,  whether  he  was 
indeed  doing  God  service  ? 


i88    TESTIMONY  OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

It  was  impossible,  it  is  urged,  but  that  such  questions 
should  arise.  By  fresh  efforts  of  fanatical  zeal  the  voice  of 
conscience  was  drowned-;  but  time  and  again  the  living 
figure  described  to  him  by  the  Christians  must  have  stood 
before  his  soul  ;  time  and  again  the  intellect  refused  to  bow 
before  it,  until  finally  the  image  of  fancy  could  yield  no 
longer  to  the  effort  of  thought. 

Now  what  justification  is  there  for  all  this  ?  None  what- 
ever, so  far  as  St.  Paul's  own  language  is  concerned  ;  and  it 
is  by  that,  and  not  by  any  imaginary  picture,  that  the  issue 
must  be  decided.  Even  if  we  put  out  of  consideration  the 
Apostle's  own  statement  in  i  Tim.  i.  13,  where  he  draws  a 
very  different  picture  (since  we  are  refused  the  authenticity 
of  the  Pastoral  Epistles),  we  fail  to  find  anything  in  the 
Apostle's  generally  accepted  writings  which  can  justify  the 
extraordinary  representation  given  above.  "  He  always 
held,"  writes  Dr.  Weiss,  "  the  persecution  of  the  Church  to 
be  the  greatest  sin  of  his  life  (i  Cor.  xv.  9  ;  Phil.  iii.  6)  ;  but 
he  never  indicates  that  it  was  in  opposition  to  his  better 
will  and  conscience  that  he  struggled  against  the  truth."  ^ 
Moreover,  he  evidently  regards — and  nothing,  surely,  is  more 
remarkable — his  merit  in  persecuting  the  Church  of  Christ 
as  equal  in  merit  to  his  blamelessness  in  keeping  the 
righteousness  which  was  of  the  law  (Phil.  iii.  6),  a  further 
testimony  which  comes  to  us  from  an  Epistle  the  authenticity 
of  which  few  critics  nowadays  would  care  to  dispute. 

It  would  seem,  in  truth,  that  even  in  quarters  where  we 
might  not  expect  it,  St.  Paul's  own  language  cannot  be  held 
to  justify  the  view  of  any  gradual  passage  from  the  Jewish 
synagogue  to  the  Christian  Church.  "It  is  at  all  events 
certain,"  writes  Dr.  Holtzmann  in  his  recent  edition  of  the 
Acts,  "  that  the  Apostle  knows  nothing  of  a  gradual  process 
which  has  drawn  him  closer  to  Christianity,  but  only  of  a 
sudden  halt  which  he  was  compelled  to  make  in  the  midst  of 
'  Weiss,  Leben  Jesu,  ii.  581,  4th  edit. 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   ST.   PAUL  189 

an  active  career.  He  knows  only  of  an  instantaneous  revela- 
tion, not  a  bridge  which  might  have  led  him  from  one  bank  to 
the  other  (Phil.  iii.  5-9).  He  looks  on  himself  as  a  suddenly- 
subdued  rebel  whom  God  leads  in  triumph  over  the  world 
(2  Cor.  ii.  14;)  '■'■  Hand-Commentar  sum  N.T."  3rd  edit, 
pp.  70-1  [1901].  "A  year  or  two  after  the  death  of  Jesus," 
writes  Dr.  Moffatt,^  "  one  of  the  brilliant  leaders  in  the 
Jewish  party  of  the  Pharisees,  suddenly  {KaTekrj^Orjv  vno 
XpicTTOv)  became  a  Christian."  And  in  this  statement  he 
refers  to  the  remarkable  word  which  St.  Paul  uses  of  himself 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Philippians,  "  I  was  apprehended  by 
Christ  Jesus  "  (iii.  I2),'a  word  which  denotes  that  the  Apostle 
was  seized  upon,  taken  possession  of  by  Christ,  or  that  he 
was  overtaken  by  Christ. 

And  if  we  take  into  account  the  Apostle's  language  and 
attitude  in  the  Acts,  what  do  we  find  ?  Not  that  his  soul 
was  filled  at  the  time  of  his  conversion  with  the  reproachful 
image  of  Jesus,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  he  knew  not  the 
voice  which  spake  to  him  :  "  Who  art  Thou,  Lord  ?  "  In  each 
of  the  three  narratives  this  same  question  finds  a  place. 
But  it  will  no  doubt  be  said,  how  do  you  explain  the  words, 
"  It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  pricks,"  words  which 
once,  at  all  events  in  the  Acts,  are  described  as  spoken  to 
St.  Paul  by  Christ  Himself?  (Acts  xxvi.  14). 

No  doubt  such  words  are  sometimes  taken  to  mean  that 
Saul  the  Pharisee  had  been  fighting  against  the  scruples 
which  came  to  him  in  his  relentless  persecuting  zeal :  "  He 
repressed  the  scruples,  yet  the  sword  had  entered  his  soul." 
So  both  Schmiedel  and  Pfleiderer  would  represent  the 
Apostle's  mental  condition.^ 

I  cannot  think  that  such  an  explanation   is  warranted  in 

^  Historical  N.T.,  p.  121,  2nd.  edit. 

^  It  would  seem,  however,  that  Dr.  Clemen  does  not  at  all  agree  in 
this  view  of  the  words,  as  in  such  an  interpretation  we  should  have 
expected  some  intimation  in  his  Epistles  that  the  Apostle  had  perse- 
cuted the  Christians  against  his  better  knowledge  [Paulus,  i.  207). 


190    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

face  of  St.  Paul's  own  statements,  and  it  is  by  these,  as  in 
the  former  case,  that  the  issue  must  be  decided.  Nor  can 
I  think  that  it  is  needful  to  explain  the  words  before  us 
as  if  they  contained  any  reference  to  the  prickings  of  con- 
science against  which  the  Apostle  was  struggling  in  vain, 
whether  those  prickings  were  caused  by  the  sufferings  of  the 
Christians,  or  by  the  Apostle's  own  refusal  to  entertain  the 
idea  that  righteousness,  after  all,  could  not  be  attained  on 
the  lines  of  a  Pharisaic  legalism. 

A  very  careful  explanation  has  been  recently  suggested 
by  Dr.  Findlay,  to  whom  we  owe  the  article  on  "  Paul  "  in 
Hastings'  B.D.^  iii.  703,  in  which,  whilst  he  holds  firmly 
to  the  conviction  that  Paul  had  not  sinned  against  the 
light,  he  sees  in  the  words  we  are  considering,  "  It  is  hard 
for  thee  to  kick  against  the  goad,"  that  which  touched  the 
secret  of  the  hearer's  heart.  "  Paul's  teaching  on  the  law 
and  faith  rehearses  the  process  that  turned  him  from  a 
Pharisee  into  a  Christian.  His  soul  had  been  pierced  and 
lacerated  by  his  sense  of  moral  impotence  in  face  of  the 
law.  Like  a  stupid  beast,  Saul  knew  not  whither  this  incessant 
goad  was  driving  him,  nor  whose  was  the  hand  that  plied  it ; 
he  had  struggled  in  wild  and  vain  resistance  till  the  appear- 
ance and  words  of  Jesus  explained  everything  "  {ii.s.  p.  703)- 

But  may  not  the  proverbial  expression  before  us  be  inter- 
preted in  a  simpler  and  perhaps  even  truer  way  than  this  ? 
Why  should  the  expression,  proverbial  as  it  undoubtedly  is, 
indicate  anything  beyond  the  certainty  that  Paul's  efforts  to 
retard  the  advance  of  the  religion  of  the  Crucified  would 
only  recoil  upon  himself?  or,  that  he  was  only  offering  by 
all  his  frenzy  and  rage  a  vain  and  perilous  resistance  ?  In 
other  words,  Saul  the  Pharisee  had  thought  that  in  the 
persecution  of  Jesus  he  was  the  possessor  both  of  right  and 
strength,  so  foolish  was  he  and  ignorant,  like  as  a  beast 
before  Him  whose  power,  though  unseen,  was  pressing  him 
sore,  against  which  his  fierceness  and  zeal  were  worse  than 


THE   CONVERSION    OF   ST.   PAUL  191 

vain.  Hitherto  Saul  had  simply  thought  of  Jesus  as  "  One 
who  was  dead  "  ;  now  he  must  be  brought  to  confess  that  His 
was  the  unseen  hand  which  was  laid  upon  him,  leading  him 
on  by  a  way  he  knew  not.^ 

But,  again,  suppose,  if  you  will,  that  the  account  given  of 
St.  Paul's  state  of  mind  on  the  road  to  Damascus  is  correct, 
vis.  that  he  was  violently  agitated  by  the  martyrdoms  and 
sufferings  of  the  Christians,  and  that  in  his  own  inner  life  he 
found  no  satisfaction  ;  suppose,  if  you  will,  as  De  Quincey 
long  ago  urged,  that  the  radiant  countenance  of  Stephen 
haunted  Saul  in  sleeping,  and  troubled  him  when  awake; 
suppose,  if  you  will,  that  his  mind  was  full  of  the  thought, 
derived,  we  are  asked  to  believe,  from  Jewish  theology,  that 
the  death  of  a  righteous  man  might  avail  with  God  as  an 
atonement  for  sin :  what  then  ?  "  Perhaps,"  says  Dr. 
Schmiedel,  "  the  Christians  had  already  begun  to  quote  in 
support  of  this  view  Isa.  liii.,  which  Paul,  in  all  probability, 
had  in  mind,  when  in  i  Cor.  xv.  3  he  says  that  he  received 
by  tradition  the  doctrine  that  Christ,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, had  been  delivered  as  a  propitiation  for  our  sins." 
Let  us  look  at  this  statement  for  a  moment.  If  the  Chris- 
tians had  thus  interpreted  Isa.  liii.,  they  must  have 
commenced  their  interpretation  surprisingly  early,  for  the 
trend  of  modern  criticism  is  to  place  the  date  of  Saul's  con- 
version within  a  very  short  period,  a  year  or  two,  of  the 
crucifixion." 

'  On  the  force  of  the  word  e/crpw/xa  reference  may  be  made  to  the 
literature  cited  in  Witness  of  the  Epistles^  p.  381.  Sabatier,  DApdtre 
Paul,  3rd  edit.,  pp.  45-6 ;  Zahn,  "  Paulus  "  in  Herzog's  Realencyclo- 
;pddie,  Heft  141  (1904),  both  emphasise  the  force  of  the  word  as  indicat- 
ing a  sudden  and  violent  break  with  the  Apostle's  former  thought  and 
endeavour. 

^  So,  amongst  recent  writers,  Clemen,  Patclus,  i.  350,  who  places  St. 
Paul's  conversion  possibly  in  the  same  year  as,  and  at  all  events  in  the 
year  following,  the  death  of  Jesus.  A  similarly  early  date  is  adopted  by 
Harnack,  McGififert,  Moffatt  {Historical  Introduction,  p.  121),  and 
others,  as  also  earlier  by  Keim  and  Renan.  V.  Weber  argues  for  the 
second  year  after  our  Lord's  death.     See  further,  Lecture,  XXIV. 


192     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

But  not  only  must  the  Christians  have  thus  transferred  to 
their  Master  almost  immediately  after  His  death  Isaiah's 
picture  of  the  suffering  servant  of  God,  but  St.  Paul  himself 
must  have  accepted  the  truthfulness  of  that  picture,  and 
derived  from  it  a  power  transforming  his  whole  life.  But 
this  transference  and  this  transformation,  how  were  they 
effected,  and  why  were  they  effected  ?  There  is  no  evidence 
that  the  Jews  at  the  time  of  the  Advent  interpreted  Isa.  liii. 
of  a  suffering  Messiah.  The  German  writer  Carl  Holsten, 
of  whom  Schmiedel  speaks  in  the  highest  praise,  and  who  is 
still  quoted  on  all  sides  as  giving  us  the  most  searching 
analysis  of  the  state  of  Paul's  mind  at  the  time  of  his  con- 
version, admits  this  most  distinctly.  He  writes  :  "  This  idea 
of  a  suffering  Messiah,  suffering  even  to  death,  was  so  far 
removed  from  the  orthodoxy  of  Jewish  belief  that  a  suffering 
Messiah  during  the  lifetime  of  Jesus  was  still  to  His  disciples 
an  inconceivable  and  enigmatical  representation  "  {Ziim 
Evangelium  des  Paiilus  und  des  Petnis,  p.  98),  and  he  quotes 
in  support  Matt.  xvi.  21,  xvii.  23.  He  might  indeed  have 
quoted  testimonies  from  all  four  Evangelists  to  the  same 
effect. 

Other  testimonies  of  the  same  import  may  be  given  from 
impartial  writers.  "  Suffering  and  death,"  says  Dr.  Dalman, 
"  for  the  actual  possessor  of  the  Messianic  dignity  are  in  fact 
unimaginable  according  to  the  testimony  of  the  Gospels  " 
( Words  of  Jesus,  p.  265,  E.T.).^ 

Professor  Gunkel  admits  that  this  conception  of  a  suffering 
Messiah  was  not  the  view  of  official  Judaism  in  the  time  of 
Jesus,  but  he  pleads  that  this  did  not  stand  in  the  way  of  its 
acceptance  as  a  belief  in  certain  .secret  circles."  But  if  we 
know  anything  about  Paul  at  all,  we  certainly  know  this, 
that  he  did  represent  official  Judaism,  and   therefore,  accord- 

'  No  stronger  testimony  could  be  borne  to  this  point  than  that  which 
F.  C.  Baur  long  ago  emphasised  in  his  Church  History  of  the  First 
Three  Centuries,  i.  42,  E.T. 

^  Zum  religionsgeschichtlichen  Verstandftis  des  N.T.,  p.  79  (1903)- 


THE   CONVERSION    OF   ST.   PAUL  193 

ing  to  Gunkel,  we  could  not  possibly  have  expected  him 
to  hold  the  belief  in  question.  "  No  Jew,"  writes  Wernle, 
"  before  Jesus  had  explained  Isa.  liii,  of  a  dying  Messiah."  ^ 
But  Gunkel  rightly  sees  that  the  real  problem  is  to  show 
how  the  belief  in  the  resurrection,  even  if  we  allow  it  to 
have  existed  among  the  disciples,  was  transferred  to  the 
person  of  Jesus — "the  Jesus,"  as  he  expresses  it,  "who 
was  executed  in  shame  and  disgrace  upon  the  Cross."  In 
urging  the  force  of  this  problem,  he  touches  upon  what  is 
and  must  be  the  great  difficulty  in  the  whole  matter. 
We  are  so  accustomed  to  glory  in  the  Cross,  to  associate 
with  the  triumph  of  the  Cross  whatsoever  things  are 
honourable,  lovely,  and  of  good  report,  that  we  forget  that 
for  St.  Peter  and  St  Paul  alike,  the  two  great  preachers 
of  the  Acts,  the  Cross  had  been  associated,  not  with  a 
blessing,  but  with  a  curse  {'Avddefxa  'iTycrov?,  i  Cor.  xii.  3). 
St.  Paul  had  heard  the  terrible  words  which  formed  as 
it  were  the  creed  of  unbelief :  "  cursed,"  not  merely  by  man, 
but  by  God,  in  Jewish  eyes,  was  every  one  that  hangeth 
on  a  tree.^ 

So  keenly  has  all  this  been  felt  that  it  is  urged  again 
and  again,  as  by  Pfleiderer,  that  as  the  Cross  was  an  offence 
to  the  Jews  and  foolishness  to  the  Greeks  who  had  no 
conception  of  its  meaning,  the  most  favourable  soil  for 
Paul's  preaching  was  evidently  among  the  Jewish  proselytes. 
They  had  some  knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of 
the  Messianic  hope,  while  they  were  free,  so  it  is  urged, 
from  Jewish  national  and  legal  prejudices.^  But  we 
must  remember,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  were  pro- 
selytes and  proselytes,  and  that  it  is  by  no  means  so  certain 
that  the  picture  drawn  for  us  above  would  have  proved 
everywhere    correct.       It   is    surely   very  doubtful    how  far 

1  Dz'e  Anfdnge  unserer  Religion,  p.  30  (1901). 
*  Chase,  Credibility  of  the  Acts,  p.  149. 
'  Urchristentum,  i.  80  flf  (1902). 

13 


194     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

we  can  claim  the  proselytes  as  always  heralds  of  the  way 
of  Christianity,  and  as  always  supporters  of  the  doctrines 
of  Paul. 

Moreover,  even  if  the  picture  is  correct,  it  fails  to  explain 
the  fact  that  the  preaching  of  the  Cross  and  the  belief  that 
He  who  died  there  died  for  our  sins  did  not  originate 
with  St.  Paul.  He  preached  that  which  he  had  previously 
received  ;  he  preached  that  which  was  the  sum  and  substance 
of  the  Christian  faith  common  to  himself  and  to  the  Twelve  ; 
in  this  respect,  at  all  events,  other  men  had  laboured,  and 
St.  Paul  had  entered  into  their  labours.  But  why  dicj  men 
like  St.  Peter  and  St.  John,  with  all  their  Jewish  instincts 
and  training,  preach  the  Cross  ?  Why  did  the  men  and 
women  whom  Paul  dragged  into  prison  lay  down  their 
lives  for  a  crucified  fellow  countryman  ?  That  belief  must 
have  originated  very  early,  as  we  have  already  seen,  and 
it  must  have  grown  very  quickly.  It  must  have  found 
acceptance  not  only  in  Jerusalem,  but  in  Damascus,  and 
even  in  foreign  cities  (Acts  xxvi.  ii).  So  that  what  we 
have  really  to  account  for  is  not  the  acceptance  of  the  Cross 
by  Jewish  proselytes,  but  by  Jews,  by  men  who  were 
Hebrews  of  the  Hebrews.  What  we  have  to  account  for  is 
the  fact  that  these  men  were  ready  not  only  to  glory  in  the 
Cross  themselves,  but  also  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  it  and 
the  teaching  of  it  at  the  risk  of  their  own  lives.  This,  it 
may  be,  is  an  old-fashioned  argument,  and  the  world  has 
outgrown  whatever  cogency  may  have  once  belonged  to  it. 
It  is  not,  however,  a  question  of  antiquity,  but  of  validity, 
and  at  all  events  we  have  here  an  argument  which  will 
appeal  to  practical  men.  The  late  Lord  Salisbury  was  a 
keen  and  far-seeing  statesman,  and  when  he  was  asked  some 
years  ago  upon  what  evidence  he  accepted  the  Christian 
faith,  he  pointed  not  only  to  its  moral  conquests,  but  to  the 
fact  that  its  central  doctrine  was  testified  to  by  men  who 
had  every  opportunity  of  seeing  and  knowing,  and  whose 


THE   CONVERSION    OF   ST.   PAUL  195 

veracity  was  tested  through  long  lives  by  tremendous  trials 
both  of  energy  and  endurance. 

But,  further,  in  the  case  of  St.  Paul,  just  as  any  attempt 
to  explain  his  conversion  by  natural  causes  presupposes  the 
existence  of  his  faith  instead  of  accounting  for  the  origin  of 
it,  so,  too,  with  regard  to  his  Apostleship.  St.  Paul  became 
not  only  a  convert,  but  a  missionary,  an  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles.  To  account  for  this  additional  fact,  another 
picture  is  presented   to  our  view. 

We  are  asked  to  see  in  the  Apostle  a  man  who  in  his 
Tarsian  home  had  become  acquainted  with  religious  prose- 
lytes, who  had  often  busied  himself  with  the  question  as 
to  how  the  limits  imposed  by  Jewish  national  pride  and  the 
wretched  formalism  of  the  Rabbis  could  be  overcome,  and  the 
multitude  of  the  heathen  seeking  salvation  be  won  for  God.^ 
But  in  the  first  place  we  must  remember  that  so  far  as 
we  know  anything  of  it,  the  missionary  zeal  of  Saul  of 
Tarsus  was  directed  not  to  the  purpose  of  making  converts 
from  heathenism,  but  of  preventing  Christians  from  con- 
verting Jews.^  And  even  if  we  credit  him  with  the 
expectation  of  a  future  missionary  era,  which  was  certainly 
rare  among  the  Jews,  we  should  have  to  account  even  then 
for  the  gulf  which  separates  St.  Paul's  liberal  efforts  as  a 
Christian  missionary  from  the  narrow  view  of  the  Jews 
towards  the  Gentile  world  and  of  its  reception  into  the 
Church  of  God. 

And,  in  the  next  place,  could  any  statement  be  more 
diametrically  opposed  than  the  above  to  the  picture  which 
we  gain  of  St.  Paul's  former  life  from  his  own  pen  ?  The 
whole  of  his  early  training  and  his  past  career  up  to  the 
time  of  his  conversion,  what  was  it  but  a  proof,  as  he 
reminds  the  Galatians,  that  he  had  learnt  the  liberty  of  the 
Gospel  in  no  human  school?  (Gal.  i.  12). 

1  Pfleiderer,  Das  Urchristentum,  i.  80-1  (1902). 

2  See  Art.  "  Proselyte,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  iv.  136 


196     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

In  writing  to  the  Philippians,  as  also  to  the  Romans  (xi.  i), 
he  prides  himself  upon  the  fact  that  he  was  not  only  not 
born  of  proselyte  parents,  but  that  he  was  descended  from 
the  faithful  tribe  of  Benjamin.  He  had  not  been  admitted  in 
mature  years  to  a  proselyte's  share  in  the  covenant,  but  on 
the  eighth  day  he  had  received  the  sign  of  circumcision 
(Phil.  iii.  5-6).  In  answer  to  the  taunts  of  his  enemies,  he 
asserts,  with  pardonable  dignity,  that  he,  equally  with  them, 
was  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  and  that  though  born  in  Tarsus, 
he  had  equal  claim  to  the  title  of  Israelite  and  Hebrew 
(2  Cor.  xi.  22).  All  this  we  may  learn  from  statements  of 
St.  Paul  which  we  may  fairly  describe  as  practically  undisputed. 

But  let  us  look  at  the  Apostle  for  a  moment,  not  only 
before,  but  after  his  conversion.  Instead  of  regarding  the 
Gentiles  only  as  most  in  need  of  the  grace  of  God,  what  a 
change  !  He  never  forgets  that  the  Gospel  was  for  the  Jew 
first  ;  and  if  the  certainty  that  he  was  appointed  by  God  to 
be  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  was  experienced  immediately 
upon  his  conversion,  and  if  he  felt  at  once  an  impulse  to 
announce  the  glad  tidings  to  the  Gentiles,  this  was  not 
because  of  his  previous  intimacy  with  Jewish  proselytes  or 
his  sympathy  with  their  antipathies  to  Jewish  pride  and 
prejudice,  but  because  of  the  revelation  of  Jesus,  whom  he 
now  knew  as  the  Christ,  in  whom  there  was  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  for  all  were  one  in  Him. 

Even  if  we  admit  that  it  is  probable  that  there  did  exist 
in  St.  Paul's  mind  some  germs  of  a  view  wider  than  the 
purely  Jewish,  even  then  the  question  would  inevitably  arise, 
as  in  fact  it  did  arise,  of  the  exact  relation  of  the  Gentile  to 
the  Jew,  and  of  his  share  in  the  Messianic  salvation.  And 
Paul's  views  on  this  point,  far  removed  as  they  were  from 
the  contemporary  hatred  of  the  alien  and  the  stranger,  and 
from  the  rigorous  exclusion  of  the  Gentile  from  the  blessings 
of  the  Messianic  kingdom,  could  only  have  come  to  him  by 
revelation. 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   ST.   PAUL  197 

But,  once  more,  it  is  further  urged  that  in  dealing  with 
St.  Paul's  conversion,  and  with  the  belief  that  he  had  seen 
the  risen  Jesus,  we  are  dealing  also  with  a  man  of  shattered 
nerves,  an  epileptic,  prone  to  see  visions  and  to  receive 
revelations  by  his  own   acknowledgment.^ 

But  even  supposing  that  St.  Paul  was  an  epileptic, 
supposing  that  the  disease  or  malady  from  which  he  suffered 
was  epilepsy,  does  this  reduce  him  to  a  mere  shattered  wreck 
of  a  man,  always  imagining  that  his  own  fancies  were  revela- 
tions ?  Bishop  Lightfoot  admitted  that  St.  Paul's  "  thorn 
in  the  flesh  "  may  well  have  been  epilepsy,  and  one  of  the 
most  recent  and  ablest  commentators  on  2  Corinthians,  Dr. 
Plummer,  is  of  the  same  opinion.  But,  as  they  both  point 
out,  the  fact  that  a  man  is  an  epileptic  does  not  reduce  him 
to  the  level  of  a  lunatic  :  Julius  Caesar,  Plutarch,  Cromwell, 
Napoleon,  Peter  the  Great,  were  all  epileptics.^ 

At  the  same  time  we  must  remember  that  we  are  by  no 
means  shut  up  to  the  conclusion  that  St.  Paul's  malady  was 
epilepsy,  and  Professor  Ramsay  has  maintained  most  forcibly, 
and  in  a  most  interesting  manner,  that  the  Apostle's  "  thorn 
in  the  flesh  "  may  have  been  malarial  fever.^ 

But  there  are  two  further  matters  to  be  borne  in  mind. 
In  the  first  place,  St.  Paul  distinctly  asserts  that  the  malady, 
whatever  it  was,  came  upon  him  after  the  visions  and  revela- 
tions ;  it  did  not  precede  them.      In  other  words,  whatever 

'  Cf.,  or  example,  amongst  recent  writers,  the  remarks  of  Weinel, 
Paulus,  p.  23  (1904),  and  Pfleiderer,  Urchristentum,  i.  62,  2nd  edit. 

^  See  Dr.  Plummer' s  valuable  note,  2  Corinthians,  pp.  239-45  (1903). 

^  Historical  Commentary  on  the  Galatians,  p.  422.  Dr.  Menzies 
Alexander,  in  the  Expository  Times,  July  and  September,  1902,  argues 
forcibly  that  St.  Paul's  infirmity  was  caused  by  a  fever,  which  bore  the 
name  of  Malta  fever,  which  frequented  the  coasts  and  banks  of  large 
rivers,  and  he  draws  out  a  long  list  of  parallelisms  between  the  symptoms 
of  St.  Paul's  infirmity  and  those  of  the  so-called  Malta  fever.  He  also 
points  out  with  great  force  (and  his  testimony  as  a  medical  man  is  of 
weight  on  such  a  point)  that  even  if  it  could  be  shown  that  the  malady 
was  epilepsy,  yet  that  epilepsy  is  by  no  means  incompatible  with  a 
vigorous  intellectual  life. 


198     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  malady  was,  it  was  not   the    cause   of  the   visions   and 
revelations. 

In  the  next  place,  it  is  important  to  note  that  those  who 
describe  the  Apostle's  malady  as  epilepsy  are  accustomed  to 
see  in  his  conversion  an  illustration  of  an  attack  of  that 
disorder.  But  how  can  this  be  ?  St.  Paul  himself  tells  us 
that  the  thorn  in  the  flesh  was  given  to  him  after  the  vision 
of  fourteen  years  before  ;  but  that  vision  was  manifestly  not 
his  conversion,  it  was  granted  to  him  after  he  became  a 
Christian,  not  at  the  time  of  his  conversion  :  "  I  knew  a  man 
in  Christ  fourteen  years  ago  "  (2  Cor.  xii.  2). 

But  if  we  believe  that  St.  Paul   is  speaking  the   words  of 
truth  and  soberness  ;   if  we  credit  him  when  he  tells  us  that 
his  visions  and  revelations  were  not  evolved  out  of  his  own 
inner  consciousness,  but  were  "  of  the  Lord  " ; "  if  we  recognise 
that  the  only  justification  of  his  claim   to  be  an   Apostle  is 
based  upon  the  fact  that  he  had  seen   the  risen   Christ,   then 
we  can  understand   much  which  otherwise   is   wholly  inex- 
plicable.     Here  is  a  man   in  the  prime  of  life,  with  every 
prospect  of  success  before  him,  endowed,  as  his  letters  show 
us,  with  intellectual  force  and   power,  of  indomitable  energy, 
with  a  keen  sense  of  duty  and  its  requirements,  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  whole  case  which  could  reverse  his  decision, 
passing  in  a  moment  from  the  social  and  religious  life  of  a 
Pharisee,  from  his  position  as  an   accredited   emissary  of  the 
Sanhedrin,  to  a  homeless  and   perilous  calling  amongst  the 
followers  of   a   despised  and    hated  sect.     "  What    shall    it 
profit  ? "       That  is   the    question    which    men    have    always 
asked,  and  which  they  will  continue  to  ask,  as  there  is  set 
'  See  Dean  Bernard's  note,  in  loco,  in  the  Expositor's  Greek  Testa- 
ment, 1903. 

»  "  Dean  Stanley  contrasts  the  reticence  of  the  Apostle  with  the  details 
given  by  Mahomet.  People  who  claim  to  have  received  revelations 
commonly  do  give  details.  It  is  specially  remarkable  that  St.  Paul 
never  quotes  these  experiences  in  heaven  (2  Cor.  xii.  4)  as  evidence  for 
his  teaching.  How  easy  to  have  claimed  special  revelation  in  defence 
of  his  treatment  of  the  Gentiles  1  "  (Plummer,  2  Cor.,  p.  197). 


THE   CONVERSION   OF   ST.   PAUL  199 

before  them  this  startling  change  in  the  career  of  St.  Paul. 
What  shall  it  profit  ?  Nothing,  so  far  as  the  vain-glory  of 
life  is  concerned  ;  nothing,  so  far  as  things  which  perish  in 
the  using  are  concerned. 

But  from  the  day  of  his  conversion  St.  Paul  never  wavered 
in  his  choice  ;  and  as  he  advanced  in  years,  and  cares  pressed 
more  heavily  upon  him,  men  saw  in  him  a  brighter  light 
than  that  which  shone  out  of  heaven  on  the  road  to 
Damascus,  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  that  light,  which  never 
failed,  led  him  on  from  faith  to  faith,  in  journeyings  often, 
in  perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  perils 
among  false  brethren.  "  Not  that  I  have  already  obtained, 
or  am  already  made  perfect ;  but  I  press  on,  if  so  be  that 
I  may  apprehend,  seeing  that  also  I  was  apprehended  by 
Christ  Jesus." 

To  start  thee  on  thy  outrunning  race, 
Christ  shows  the  splendour  of  His  Face  : 
What  will  that  Face  of  splendour  be 
When  at  the  goal  He  welcomes  thee  ? 
Christina  Rossetti. 


LECTURE    X 

THE   TESTIMONY  OF  ST.  PAUL  TO  THE  FACTS 
AND    TEACHING    OF    THE    GOSPELS 

THE  subject  is  one  ot  permanent  interest  in  New 
Testament  criticism.  With  regard  to  the  four 
Gospels,  fresh  views  may  be  current  from  time  to  time  as  to 
their  relationship  to  each  other,  their  mutual  dependence, 
their  exact  dates  ;  but  the  relation  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  to 
these  documents  will  always  remain  of  primary  interest  and 
importance. 

Some  seventy  years  ago  the  famous  attack  of  David 
Strauss  upon  the  historical  character  of  the  Gospels  received 
perhaps  its  most  effectual  repulse  by  the  evidence  afforded 
from  St.  Paul's  Epistles  to  the  main  facts  of  those  Gospels, 
and  by  a  testimony  to  those  facts  of  so  early  a  date  that  the 
growth  of  a  myth  would  seem  to  be  forbidden.  Any  one  at 
all  conversant  with  the  attacks  upon  the  Christian  faith 
must  have  noted,  as  one  of  their  characteristic  features,  that 
the  same  points  are  constantly  urged,  as  if  they  had  never 
been  dealt  with  or  anticipated  by  Christian  Apologists. 
And  so  the  mythical  theory  often  meets  us  to-day,  in  a  more 
or  less  modified  form,  no  doubt,  but  still  substantially  the 
same  as  at  its  first  appearance  nearly  seventy  years  ago. 
One  cannot,  for  example,  read  the  commentaries  of  H. 
Holtzmann,  or  The  Oldest  Gospel  by  J.  Weiss,  or  Pfleiderer's 
account  of  primitive  Christianity,  without  becoming  painfully 
aware  of  this. 


TESTIMONY   TO    FACTS   AND   TEACHING     201 

But  whilst  this  mode  of  attack  has  presented  itself  again 
and  again,  it  must  not  be  thought  that  it  has  gained 
strength  by  repetition  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  means  of 
defeating  it  have  been  materially  strengthened,  and  its 
insufficiency  abundantly  exposed.^ 

The  first  series  of  these  lectures  has,  I  trust,  at  least 
shown  us  how  the  evidence  for  the  authenticity  of  a  large 
majority  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  if  not  for  that  of  the  whole 
of  those  claimed  for  him,  is  commending  itself  to  the 
consideration,  and  in  no  small  degree  to  the  acceptance,  of 
men  of  very  varied  schools  of  thought,  and  that  no  serious 
importance  attaches  to  recent  attacks  upon  positions  already 
won. 

Or,  again,  it  has  become  so  customary  with  some  writers 
to  assert  that  St.  Paul's  attention  was  fixed  so  entirely  upon 
the  crucified  and  risen  Christ  that  the  details  of  the  earthly 
life  of  Jesus  became  to  him  of  little  or  no  importance,  that 
we  forget  how  much  may  be  said,  and  in  fact  has  been  said, 
sometimes  in  unexpected  quarters,  in  qualification  of  this 
statement.  A  countryman  of  his  own,  Paul  Peine,  in  his 
full  and  admirable  Jesus  Christiis  und  Paulus  (1902),  who 
has  drawn  out  more  completely  than  any  one  since  Paret 
(1858-9)  the  relation  of  St.  Paul  to  the  historical  Christ, 
has  rightly  criticised  Harnack's  famous  What  is  Christianity  f 
by  pointing  out  that  no  real  attempt  is  made  to  work  out 
the  problem  of  the  relation  of  Paul  to  Jesus,  and  that  this 
remains  a  most  decided  defect  in  Harnack's  book.  If  we 
confine  ourselves  to  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years,  one  might 
of  course  expect  to  find  from   conservative  critics  like  Dr. 

'  Cf.  Fairbairn's  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion^  p.  467  ; 
Church  Quarterly  Review,  April,  1904,  on  "  The  Silesian  Horseherd," 
one  of  the  most  recent  attempts  at  reviving  the  mythical  theory. 
Amongst  German  books  may  be  noted  Das  Leben  Jesu,  in  seinen 
neueren  Darstellungen,  p.  15  ff  (1892),  by  C.  Uhlhorn ;  Life  of 
Christ,  i.  160,  E.T.,  by  B.  Weiss;  Art.  "Jesus  Christus "  in  new 
edition  of  Herzog's  Encyclopcedia,  by  O.  Zockler,  1900. 


202     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Zahn  an  acknowledgment  of  St.  Paul's  testimony  to  the 
facts  and  teaching  of  the  Gospel,  and  it  would  be  easy  to 
note  the  fulness  and  the  frankness  of  this  acknowledgment. 
Professor  O.  Zockler,  e.g.,  the  writer  of  the  article  "  Jesus 
Christus  "  in  the  new  edition  of  Herzog's  EncyclopcEdia,  now 
in  course  of  publication,  speaks  of  the  testimony  of  St. 
Paul's  Epistles  to  the  person  and  life  of  Jesus  as  a  testimony 
of  invaluable  worth. 

But  in  other  quarters  the  force  of  the  same  evidence  is 
evidently  felt  in  no  inconsiderable  degree,  and  it  would  be 
easy  to  adduce  many  names  not  altogether  unknown  in 
England  in  proof  of  a  statement  which  may  seem  at  first 
sight  somewhat  hazardous.^  Let  me  refer  as  an  example  to 
one  of  the  most  recent  of  the  many  so-called  "  scientific  " 
Lives  of  Jesus  which  have  come  to  us  from  Germany. 

'  Amongst  these  names  may  be  mentioned  Nosgen,  "  Die  apostolische 
Verkundigung  und  die  Geschichte  Jesu  "  {IVeue  Ja}irbucher  fiir 
deutsche  Theologte,  (1895)  ;  Sabatier,  DAfotre  Paul,  p.  61  ff  (1896)  ; 
Titius,  Der  Paulinismus  unter  dem  Gesichtspjinkt  der  Seligkeit,  p.  8 
ff  (1900) ;  Wendt,  Die  Lehre  Jesii,  pp.  44,  270  (1901),  and  "  Die  Lehre 
des  Paulus  verglichen  mit  der  Lehre  Jesu  "  [^Zeitschrift fur  Theologie 
und  Kirche  (1894)  ;  Drescher,  Das  Leben  Jesu  bet  Paulus  (1900); 
Sturm,  Der  Apostel  Paulus  und  die  evangelische  Uberlieferung, 
1897  and  1900  (Forsetzung),  Berlin  ;  Heinrici,  Der  Zweite  Brief  an 
die  Korinther,  p.  276  (as  against  Schmiedel),  1900,  and  Das  Ur- 
christentum,  p.  94  ( 1 902 ) ;  Belser,  Einleitung  in  das  N.  T. ,  p.  447  ( 1 902)  ; 
Furrer,  Das  Lehcti  Jesu  Christi,  p.  14  2(1901),  2nd  edit.  1905  ;  Feine, 
fesus  Christus  und  Paulus,  1902.  For  the  earlier  testimony  of 
Keim  and  other  well-known  writers  reference  may  be  made  to  the 
account  given  in  the  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  chapter  ii.,  entitled 
"An  Historical  Retrospect."  It  would  be  easy  to  quote  English 
writers  who  have  recently  borne  the  same  testimony,  e.g.  Fairbairn, 
Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,  p.  443  ff;  R.  B.  Drummond, 
Apostolic  Teaching  and  Christus  Teaching,  p.  29  ;  Headlam,  Critical 
Questions,  p.  173  ff;  Bishop  of  'Q\vm\ng\\a,m,  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
i.  234;  Chase,  Lord's  Prayer  in  the  Early  Church,  p.  19  ff;  C. 
Anderson  Scott,  Expositor,  ii.  202  (1900)  ;  and  Bishop  Lightfoot's 
Notes  on  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  pp.  36,  71-2. 

The  literature  of  a  more  recent  date  is  discussed  in  Lecture  XXIV., 
of  the  present  work.  Von  Dobschiitz,  while  limiting  the  Apostle's 
knowledge  of  Jesus,  regards  him  as  making  the  words  of  Jesus  his 
constant  guide. 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     203 

The  writer  Oscar  Holtzmann  lays  stress,  e.g.,  upon  the 
manner  in  which  St.  Paul  shows  his  acquaintance  not  only 
with  the  fact  of  the  crucifixion,  but  with  the  details  which 
were  connected  with  it  ;  he  knows,  e.g.,  of  the  night  of  our 
Lord's  betrayal ;  he  knows  of  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist ; 
he  refers  to  "  the  Twelve  "  as  if  he  was  evidently  using  a 
familiar  term  ;  he  knows,  too,  of  some  of  the  details  of  our 
Lord's  earthly  life,  that  He  was  born  under  the  law  ;  he 
knows  of  the  impression  which  our  Lord's  character  had 
made  upon  men  ;  and  it  is  frankly  admitted  by  Holtzmann 
that  St.  Paul  in  all  probability  derived  this  information  from 
St.  Peter  when  he  went  up  to  visit  him  in  Jerusalem  and 
abode  with  him  for  fifteen  days  (Gal.  i.  18).  If  we  turn  to 
our  Lord's  teaching,  we  find  that,  according  to  Holtzmann, 
St.  Paul  must  have  had  considerable  acquaintance  with  it. 
He  can  refer,  e.g.,  to  our  Lord's  teaching  as  to  marriage,  to 
His  ordinance  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Church,  to  His 
appeal  to  love  as  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  ;  he  knows  of  our 
Lord's  great  discourses  as  to  His  coming  to  judgment, 
and  he  borrows  some  of  his  phraseology  from  it  ;  he 
speaks,  e.g.,  in  his  earliest  Epistle  of  that  coming  as  of 
the  coming  of  a  thief  in  the  night.  We  are  reminded, 
too,  of  the  way  in  which  the  language  so  frequent  in  the 
Epistles  as  to  the  building  up,  the  edifying  of  the  Christian 
community,  as  to  the  authority  which  the  Lord  gave  for 
building  up,  and  not  for  casting  down  (2  Cor.  x.  8),  may 
have  passed  to  St.  Paul  from  our  Lord's  use  of  the  same 
metaphor  when  He  spoke  of  building  His  Church.  Once 
more,  Holtzmann  points  to  the  significance  of  the  resur- 
rection appearances  related  by  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians, 
e.g.  the  Apostle's  reference  to  the  five  hundred  brethren, 
of  whom  the  greater  part  remain  unto  this  present,  an 
intimation  that  the  testimony  to  the  resurrection  could  not 
only  be  confirmed  by  numerous  witnesses,  but  that  that 
testimony    was     not    concerned     with    events    from    which 


204    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

St.  Paul  and  his  converts  were  separated  by  a  long  lapse 
of  years. 

Now  what  we  learn  from  these  writers  to  whom  reference 
has  been  made  is  this,  that  they  are  all  agreed  that  the 
amount  of  information  which  St.  Paul  possessed  as  to  the 
facts  and  teaching  of  the  Gospels  was  by  no  means  so  small 
as  it  is  sometimes  represented  to  have  been.  It  may  also 
be  said  that  there  is  a  growing  agreement  among  those 
critics  who  occupy,  more  or  less,  a  conservative  standpoint, 
that  St.  Paul's  statements  about  the  person  of  Christ  have 
for  their  source  the  teaching  of  Christ  about  Himself,  and, 
further,  that  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  testimony 
of  St.  Paul  differed  from  that  witnessed  to  by  the  Twelve 
and  by  the  Church.^ 

Take,  in  illustration,  the  Epistle  which  many  modern 
critics  regard  as  the  earliest  which  St.  Paul  wrote — the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  It  is  evident  that  St.  Paul  uses 
language  which  implies,  as  we  shall  see  more  fully,  no  small 
knowledge  of  facts  relating  to  Jesus  on  the  part  not  only 
of  the  Churches  in  Galatia,  but  also  of  the  Churches  in 
Judaea  (cf   i.    18-22).      But   this    is   by   no    means    all. 

In  the  controversy  between  St.  Paul  and  the  Jewish 
Christians,  for  which  our  primary  source  of  knowledge  is 
Gal.    ii.,    the   whole    question    as    to    "  the    Gospel    of   the 

'  See,  e.g.,  Feine,  u.s.  pp.  155,  169,  267,  and  also  Das  Christejitufn 
Jesu  7ind  das  Christentum  der  Afostel,  p.  43  (1904) ;  Zockler,  u.s. 
p.  6;  Wendt,  u.s.  p.  46;  Titius,  u.s.  pp.  17-18;  Heinrici,  Der  Zweite 
Brief  an  die  Korinther,  p.  44  (1900)  ;  Seeberg,  Der  Katechismus  der 
Urchristenheit,  p.  66  (1903)  ;  Resch,  Der  Faulititsrmis  u?td  die  Logia 
Jestt,  p.  620  (1904).  Amongst  English  writings  reference  may  be  made 
to  Sanday,  Art.  "Jesus  Christ,"  Hastings,  B.D.,  ii.  648,  and  Art. 
"  Son  of  God,"  ibid.  iv.  577  ;  Fairbairn,  Philosophy  of  the  Christian 
Religion,  p.  475  ;  R.  B.  Drummond,  Apostolic  Teaching  and  Christ's 
Teaching,  p.  254;  Headlam,  Critical  (Questions,  p.  189  ff;  Dean 
Bernard,  Expositor,  November,  1903,  Also  see  Cremer's  Reply  to 
Harnack,  E.T.  p.  15.  To  these  may  be  added  the  very  able  criticism 
of  Harnack  and  Loisy  by  M.  Lepin,  Jhus  Messie  et  Fits  de  Dieu, 
pp.  208,  211,  221  (1904). 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     205 

circumcision  "  was  in  reality  a  question  about  Christ.  But 
that  term,  "  the  Gospel  of  circumcision,"  what  did  it  involve 
on  the  part  of  the  older  Apostles  ?  Surely  a  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  a  revelation  of  God  in  the  Old  Covenant  was 
not  the  only  revelation.  Henceforth  God  stood  revealed 
not  only  by  Moses,  but  in  Christ :  "  Sinai  was  dwarfed  in 
comparison  of  Calvary."  ^ 

But  what  possibility  could  there  have  been  of  any  agree- 
ment between  St.  Paul  and  the  Twelve,  of  any  adjustment 
of  the  demands  of  the  two  contending  Gospels  of  circum- 
cision and  uncircumcision,  if  St.  Paul,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  Twelve  on  the  other,  had  entertained  opposing  con- 
ceptions of  our  Lord's  person  and  claims  ?  ^ 

Or  again,  if  the  question  is  raised,  as  we  shall  see  that 
it  has  been  raised,  as  to  how  far  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul 
may  be  regarded  as  representing  the  common  Christianity 
of  the  period  to  which  they  belong,  it  is  no  doubt  true  that 
St.  Paul  had  his  own  gospel,  to  which  he  gave  unhesitating 
utterance,  and  to  which  he  boldly  appealed,  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith.  But  there  is  no  evidence  that  this 
gospel  made  him  indifferent  to  the  historical  data  of  the 
life  of  Jesus.  Not  only  was  the  person  who  was  the  main 
substance  of  that  gospel  the  same  person  as  the  Saviour 
preached  by  the  Twelve,  but  in  writing  to  Churches  which 
he  had  not  himself  founded,  and  in  which  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  he  had  any  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
large  body  of  believers,  St.  Paul  evidently  takes  for  granted 
a  considerable  knowledge  as  to  the  person  of  Jesus,  as  also 
of  His  earthly  life  and  work.  We  shall  see  this  plainly 
enough  in  speaking  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

And  here  I  pause  to  refer  to  a  writer  whose  name  has 
become  notorious  in  England,  the  Abbe  Loisy.  He, 
too,    assures    us    that    the     Pauline    Christology    is    amply 

1  Bishop  of  Exeter,  St.  Athanasius,  Prolegomena,  p.  xxii.  (1892). 
^  See  Cramer's  Re;ply  to  Harnack,  E.T.,  p.  17. 


206     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

justified,  and  that  our  Lord's  consciousness  of  His  Messiah- 
ship  may  be  shown  to  be  unique  even  if  we  take  only 
those  parts  of  our  Gospels  which  are  accepted  by  the  general 
consensus  of  critics. 

It  is  something  to  be  assured  of  this  by  a  writer  who 
refuses  to  admit  that  our  Lord  spoke  the  words  given  to 
us  both  by  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  (Matt.  xi.  27  ; 
Luke  X.  22),  and  who  sees  in  St.  John's  Gospel  not  an 
historical  document,  but  a  symbolical  and  allegorical  mode 
of  instruction  ;  and  we  may  justly  protest  against  the 
surrender  of  such  special  and  important  testimony  to  our 
Lord's   unique   claims. 

But  the  Abbe  Loisy,  no  less  than  Harnack,  whom  he  so 
avowedly  attacks,  fails  to  give  us  any  satisfactory  or  con- 
sistent account  of  the  testimony  of  St.  Paul.  Thus  he 
assures  us  that  the  first  theory  about  Christ  was  formulated 
by  Paul.^  This  Apostle,  who  had  not  known  Jesus,  was 
the  first  or  one  of  the  first  to  feel  the  need  of  forming  an 
idea  of  Christ  and  a  definition  of  Him  as  the  Saviour,  since 
he  was  compelled  to  explain,  and  could  not  simply  narrate. 
And  in  his  last  Epistles,  we  are  told,  he  comes  to  identify 
Christ,  more  or  less,  with  Eternal  Wisdom,  attributing  to 
Him  a  cosmological  function. 

But  why  "  in  his  last  Epistles  "  ?  St.  Paul's  language 
in  his  "  last  Epistles  "  does  not  go  one  whit  beyond  the 
language,  as  we  have  already  seen,  in  his  earlier  Epistles. 
In  I  Cor.  viii.  6  he  speaks  of  "  one  God  the  Father,  of  whom 
are  all  things,  and  we  unto  Him  ;  and  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
through  whom  are  all  things  and  we  through  Him."  Is 
not  St.  Paul's  language  more  easily  explained  by  the  view 
that  he  already  knew  how  our  Lord  had  spoken  of  Himself 
in  relation  to  the  Father  as  "  the  Agent  of  all  divine  works  " 
'  See  the  criticism  of  Loisy  by  M.  Lepin,  Jesus  Messie  et  Fils  de 
Dieu,  p.  167  ff;  and  the  able  Articles  on  "  Loisy's  Synthesis  of 
Christianity,"  by  the  Rev.  A.  C  Jennings,  The  Churchman  (1904). 
»  Cf.  Ihe  Gospel  and  the  Church,  E.T.,  pp.  45,  96. 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     207 

(Loisy),  than  on  the  supposition  that  the  language  which 
supports  these  high  claims  was  merely  a  product  of  the 
Christian  tradition  ? 

If  we  turn  to  the  passages  in  The  Gospel  and  the  Church, 
in  which  the  Abbe  Loisy  refers  to  the  traditions  of  our 
Lord's  life,  it  cannot  be  said  that  St.  Paul's  relation  to 
these  traditions  is  described  in  a  manner  free  from  in- 
consistency. The  Abbe  takes,  for  instance,  what  we  may 
call  a  crucial  passage  (i  Cor.  xv.  3-4),^  and  he  quotes 
Harnack's  words  that  St.  Paul  ranked  himself  with  the 
early  Christian  community  in  attaching  supreme  value  to 
the  ideas  of  the  death  and  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ. 
"  But,"  replies  the  Abbe,  "  this  death  and  resurrection  might 
well  give  rise  to  different  conceptions "  ;  and  he  warns  us 
against  attributing  the  same  conceptions  to  the  early  be- 
lievers, or  to  Jesus  Himself,  or  to  the  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles.  The  passage  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
"  For  I  delivered  unto  you  that  which  I  also  received,  how 
that  Christ  died  for  our  sins,  and  that  He  rose  again  the 
third  day,"  by  no  means  makes  it  certain  that  the  idea 
of  the  Atonement  by  death  existed  from  the  beginning 
with  the  distinctness  that  the  teaching  of  Paul  conferred 
on  it ;  and  we  are  further  asked  to  note  that  St.  Paul 
says,  "  according  to  the  Scriptures,"  a  fact  which  shows 
that  the  historical  character  of  the  tradition  alluded  to 
must  not  be   exaggerated. 

But  surely  St.  Paul's  attitude  in  i  Cor.  xv.  is  that  of 
a  man  who  felt  that  he  and  his  brother  Apostles  were  on 
common  ground, "  whether  it  were  I  or  they,  so  we  preached, 
and  so  ye  believed  "  ;  and  it  seems  a  strange  argument  to 
maintain  that  the  historical  character  of  the  tradition  relating 
to  the  significance  of  our  Lord's  death  is  invalidated  because 
an  appeal  is  made  to  the  Scriptures. 

Moreover,  St.  Paul  in  his  earliest  Epistles  had  spoken, 
1  Pp.  126-7 


208     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

as  we  have  seen,  of  Christ  dying  for  us,  of  Christ  giving 
Himself  for  our  sins  (i  Thess.  v.  lo  ;  Gal.  i.  4),  so  that  it 
would  appear  that  a  similar  tradition  as  to  the  effect  of 
our  Lord's  death  must  have  existed  at  a  much  earlier 
date  than   the  Corinthian  Epistle. 

But  one  more  astonishing  statement  must  be  quoted  in 
this  connection.  "  The  passage  in  Mark "  (which  Loisy 
regards  as  the  primitive  text  in  the  Gospels  known  to  us), 
"  where  it  is  said  that  Christ  came  to  give  His  life  a  ransom 
for  many  (x.  45),  was  in  all  probability,"  says  Loisy,  "in- 
fluenced by  the  theology  of  Paul,  and  as  much  may  be  said 
of  the  narrative  of  the  Last  Supper."  ^  And  so  we  are 
actually  asked  to  believe  that  the  words,  "  This  is  My  blood 
of  the  new  testament  which  is  shed  for  many,"  must  have 
been  added  by  St.  Mark  after  the  teaching  of  Paul.  So, 
too,  the  earliest  statements,  which  St.  Mark  first  followed, 
contained  no  words  which  brought  out  the  redeeming 
intention  of  the  Lord's  death.  Does  this  seem  at  all 
probable  ? 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  tradition  as  to  the  atoning 
virtue  of  our  Lord's  death  goes  back  far  earlier  than  the 
First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  in  which,  let  us  remember, 
we  have  St.  Paul's  account  of  the  institution  of  the 
Eucharist. 

But,  further,  whenever  St.  Mark's  Gospel  was  written,  there 
is  surely  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  celebration  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  had  become  a  long-established  fact  in  the 
Christian  Church.  Can  we  suppose  for  a  moment  that 
the  whole  meaning  and  character  of  that  Sacrament  was 
altered  at  the  bidding  of  St.  Paul,  and  that  St.  Mark,  "  the 
interpreter  of  Peter,"  as  Papias  calls  him,  would  have  so 
transformed  the  meaning  and  the  bearing  of  our  Lord's 
words  and  deeds  ? 

Whatever  may  be  the  view  of  the  Abb^  Loisy,  one  thing 
'  U.S.  p.  129. 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     209 

seems  clear,  viz.  that  St.  Paul,  whilst  he  speaks  so  much 
of  the  exalted  Christ,  whilst  he  prays  to  Him,  worships 
Him,  finds  his  life  in  Him,  never  allows  us  to  lose  sight 
of  the  historical  Jesus.  What  could  be  more  significant  than 
the  manner  in  which  he  introduces  his  account  of  the 
Eucharist  ?  "  The  Lord  Jesus,  in  the  night  in  zvhich  He 
was  betrayed."  Or  take,  if  you  will,  those  words  upon  which 
we  dwelt  last  week,  "  Have  I  not  seen  Jesus  our  Lord  ?  " 
The  correct  reading  is  surely  full  of  significance.  It  is  not, 
"  Have  I  not  seen  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ?  "  but  simply, 
"  Have  I  not  seen  Jesus  our  Lord  ?  "  The  Divine  Guide  and 
Ruler  of  the  Church,  the  Lord  of  all,  was  the  same  Jesus  of 
the  Gospels,  of  whom  the  Twelve  had  testified,  and  whom 
St.  Paul  had  seen  on  the  way  to  Damascus.  St.  Paul  had 
not  forgotten  the  reply  to  his  question  of  astonishment, 
"  Who  art  Thou,  Lord  ?"..."  I  am  Jesus,  whom  thou 
persecutest." 

But  even  if  we  take  only  the  two  facts  of  the  crucifixion 
and  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  as  known  to  St.  Paul, 
we  shall  find  enough  cause  to  pause  to  consider  the  im- 
portance of  St.  Paul's  testimony  in  relation  to  them.  Take 
the  first  only.  There  have  been  men,  even  in  our  own  day, 
who  have  made  the  preposterous  assertion  that  Jesus  never 
died  ;  and  if  the  evidence  for  the  fact  had  not  been  so 
positive,  not  only  from  the  New  Testament  but  from 
secular  history,  we  should  no  doubt  have  been  told  that 
the  whole  story  of  the  Passion  was  a  myth.  Had  it  not 
been  foretold  in  the  Book  of  Wisdom  (ii.  verse  10  ff)  that 
the  righteous  man  should  suffer  reproaches  and  torment  and 
be  put  to  a  shameful  death,  and  was  not  Jesus  pre-eminently 
the  Righteous  One  ? 

But  quite  apart  from  the  testimony  of  the  famous  Roman 
historian,  quite  apart  from  the  incomparable  touch  in  the 
Acts  wherein  the  Roman  Festus,  with  all  his  aristocratic 
ignorance,  asserts  at  any  rate  the  fact  of  the  death  of  Jesus 


210    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

as  certain  (xxv.  19),  quite  apart  from  the  incredible  supposi- 
tion that  the  Christian  Church  could  have  been  founded 
by  the  followers  of  a  half-dead  Christ  creeping  out  of  His 
grave/  St.  Paul  in  his  earliest  letters  not  only  accepts  the 
fact  of  the  death  of  Christ,  but  he  is  evidently  acquainted 
with  the  agents  and  the  mode  of  that  death  ;  he  writes  to 
the  Thessalonians,  and  accuses  his  own  countrymen  of  the 
murder  of  Jesus  in  the  same  sentence  in  which  he  describes 
them  as  the  murderers  of  their  own  prophets,  "  who  both 
killed  the  Lord  Jesus  and  the  prophets,  and  drove  us  out " 
(i  Thess.  ii.  15).  In  writing  to  the  Galatians  he  reminds 
them  how  vividly  in  his  preaching  to  them  he  had  depicted 
before  their  eyes  Jesus  Christ  crucified  (Gal.  iii.  i)  ;  and  if 
we  turn  to  Acts  xiii.  we  may  see  how  the  preaching  thus 
characterised  carries  us  back  to  the  earliest  days  of  the 
\^  Apostle's  first  missionary  journey. 

Moreover,  not  only  the  fact  of  the  death  of  Christ,  but 
the  doctrine  based  upon  it,  was  part  of  the  tradition  which 
St.  Paul  had  received,  and  which  he  shared  with  the  other 
Apostles.  Christ  died,  but  why  ?  For  our  sins,  according  to 
the  Scriptures  (i  Cor.  xv.  3,  11).  The  tradition  thus  assures 
us  that  at  a  very  early  date  the  death  of  a  crucified  Jew  had 
become  associated  by  St.  Paul  and  the  Twelve  alike,  not 
with  the  curse  of  God  passed  upon  it  by  the  Jewish  law, 
but  with  the  blessing  of  the  Gospel  of  peace  for  men  and 
women  burdened  with  sin,  and  that  this  unique  value  was 
attached  to  that  death,  not  as  the  result  of  a  long  and 
laborious  brooding  over  the  Scriptures,  but  as  belonging 
to  it  from  the  first.  No  one  has  emphasised  more  than 
Harnack  the  view  that  i  Cor.  xv.  3  refers  to  a  common 
tradition,  common  to  St.  Paul  and  the  Twelve ;  and  it 
would  certainly  seem  that,  as  an  integral  part  of  that 
tradition,  there   was    a   whole   series    of    facts,   the  atoning 

2  See  for  the  entire  rejection  of  such  a  notion  amongst  recent  writers, 
Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  197. 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     211 

death,  the  resurrection,  and  that,  too,  on  the  third  day,  which 
was  from  the  first  connected  with  Jewish  prophecy,  and 
not  gradually  adapted  to  it,  as  time  went  on  or  fancy 
prompted. 

And  so,  when  we  find  that  the  mythical  theory  is  still  \ 
with  us,  albeit  in  some  modified  form  ;  or  when  we  are  told 
that  the  narratives  in  our  Gospels  may  have  been  in  some 
cases  adaptations,  in  some  cases  accretions  or  even  creations,    \ 
that  metaphor  was  translated  into  fact,  and  that  unconscious     1 
tendencies  were  often  at  work  ;  or  when  we  are  asked  how, 
if  we  had  only  know^the  Christology  of  St.   Paul,  we  could 
have  drawn  from  it  the  form  of  the  historical  Jesus  ;   or  how, 
on    the  other  hand,    if  we   had   only   known    the   historical 
Jesus,   we   could    have  inferred   that  such  a  Christology  as 
that  of  Paul  could  result ; — an  examination  of  the  evidence  to 
be  gathered  from  the  Apostle's  own  writings  will  still  present 
some  serious  counter-considerations.      That  evidence  is  not 
to  be  judged  as  if  it  was  only  of  a  reflective  character  upon 
the  events  of  the  life  of  Jesus  seen  through  a  long  retrospect 
of  years  :   in  some  particulars  it  carries  us  up  to  the  earliest 
period  of  the  existence  of  the  Christian   Church  ;  in  other 
particulars    it   is   plainly   incidental,   it   is   used   as  occasion 
demands,  and   it  justifies  the  inference  that  it  has  behind  it 
a  large  reserve  of  early  teaching  and  tradition. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  these  facts  and  the  sources  from 
which  they  were  derived  would  not  be  elaborated  in  detail. 
For  whilst  it  is  true  that  the  Epistles  are  also  Gospels,  yet 
epistles  must  remain  epistles  ;  they  are  not,  at  all  events, 
biographies ;  and  St.  Paul's  Epistles  are  manifestly  the  out- 
pouring of  the  heart,  of  a  heart  yearning  sometimes  for 
sympathy,  but  always  ready  to  impart  some  word  of 
comfort  to  others  ;  they  are  evidently  written  with  the  pre- 
supposition, as  Dr.  J.  Weiss  frankly  admits,  that  much  is 
taken  for  granted  as  already  known,  that  fuller  information 
had  been  already  given.      Nothing  is  more  natural  than  that 


v^ 


212     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

a  letter  should  thus  allude  to,  or  assume  acquaintance  with, 

familiar  facts,  without  entering  upon  any  details  and  without 

delaying  over  explanations.      In  writing  to  a  friend  to-day 

and  making  a  reference  to  the  war,  one  would  scarcely  think 

it  necessary  to  stop  and  explain  that  a  reference  is  intended 

to  the  war  between  Russia  and  Japan. 

Moreover,    it    is    very   noteworthy    that   even    St.    Paul's 

references  to  such  a  doctrine  as  the  pre-existence  of  Christ 

occur  for  the  most  part  in  some  hortatory  connection,  or  are 

introduced  to  enforce  some  practical  advice   in   relation  to 

Church  life  and  custom.      These  and  similar  references  are 

evidently    made    as    if   they    concerned    not    some    private 

speculation,  but  as  if  they  were  truths  widely  known  ;  nor  is 

there  the  least  consciousness  that  the  Apostle  is  advancing 

this  high  teaching  for  the  first  time,  as  .something  peculiar  to 

his  own  gospel  and  quite  distinct  from  that  accepted  by  the 

other  Apostles.      Take,  e.g.,   i   Cor.  viii.  6,    where   we   have 

expressions  used  with  all  the  precision  of  a  creed — expressions 

evidently    embodying    a    generally    accepted    belief,     which 

must  have  had  a  much  earlier  origin   than  the  date  of  the 

letter. 

'  Cf.  Peine,  Jesus  Christus  und  Faulus,  p.  156  ;  Titius,  u.s.  p.  11. 
See,  further,  Findlay's  valuable  note  on  i  Cor.  viii.  6,  in  the  Expositor's 
G.T.,  ii.  Professor  Bacon,  Story  of  St.  Paul,  p.  315  (1905),  regards  i 
Cor.  viii.  6  as  the  words  of  the  Corinthians,  who  thus  enunciate  "  an  out- 
and-out  Logos  doctrine  ' ' ;  and  he  adds,  "This  gnosis  Paul  does  not  dis- 
approve." But  Paul  does  not  merely  disapprove  ;  he  associates  himself 
with  the  Corinthians  in  this  acknowledged  Christology,  although  he 
admits  that  there  are  some  who  do  not  possess  this  gnosis.  Professor 
Bacon  further  urges  that  the  language  of  i  Cor.  i.  24  and  ii.  6-16 
applies  the  terms  «ro<^ia  and  hvva^iis  Qeov  in  a  technical  sense  to  Christ, 
and  identifies  Him  with  the  creative  "  Wisdom  "  of  God.  But  although 
beyond  all  doubt  St.  Paul  was  conversant  with  the  Jewish  conception 
of  Wisdom  and  with  the  Book  of  Wisdom,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  in  the  passage  just  mentioned  St.  Paul  applies  his  language  not  to 
Christ,  as  the  agent  in  creation,  but  as  the  crucified  Christ.  Professor 
Bacon  (p.  208)  does  good  service  in  pointing  out  how  the  later  con- 
ceptions of  Ephesians  and  Colossians  with  regard  to  Christ  and  his 
relation  to  humanity  and  creation  are  already  present  in  a  partly 
developed  form  in  St.  Paul's  earlier  Epistles. 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     213 

And  so,  when  we  are  told  that  from  our  modern  stand- 
point Paul's  reasoning  rests  not  on  memories  of  the  Galilean 
Jesus,  but  on  a  direct  and  immediate  intuition  of  that  living 
and  exalted  Christ  whose  holy  land  is  in  the  human  spirit 
(Moffatt,  Hist.  N.T.,  p.  42,  2nd  edit),  we  must  carefully 
weigh  what  such  a  statement  at  least  involves.  Certainly 
St.  Paul  had  not,  like  St.  John,  the  memories  of  hours  and 
days  spent  in  intercourse  with  the  human  Jesus  ;  certainly  we 
may  allow  that  St.  Paul's  chief  aim  was  to  set  forth  the 
inner  contents  of  the  faith  as  a  spirit  and  a  character  pro- 
duced and  sustained  by  God's  grace  in  human  nature.  But 
had  he  no  information,  had  his  converts  no  information,  as 
to  the  Source  and  Giver  of  this  grace  ?  Was  "  the  grace  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  which  he  emphasises  in  his  earliest 
as  in  his  latest  Epistle,  conferred  by  a  Person  of  whom  he 
knew  nothing,  and  about  whom  his  converts  could  learn 
nothing? 

Consider  for  a  moment  what  is  implied  in  this  language, 
"  the  living  and  exalted  Christ."  It  takes  for  granted  that 
some  Person  had  lived,  and  was  living  still,  who  had  fulfilled 
adequately  the  claims  to  be  the  Messiah  ;  it  takes  for 
granted  that  not  only  St.  Paul  was  himself  assured  of  the 
justice  of  this  claim,  but  that  his  followers  also  had  accepted 
its  validity  ;  that  the  present  life  and  the  exaltation  of  this 
Messiah  belonged  to  a  world  beyond  the  grave,  for  no  follower 
of  Jesus  could  have  called  Him  "  the  exalted  Christ "  during 
His  earthly  career.  This  conception  which  St.  Paul  enter- 
tained of  the  Christ  as  living  and  exalted,  does  it  not  remind 
us  at  least  of  the  Christ  of  the  early  speeches  of  St.  Peter  and 
St.  John  ?  (cf.  Acts  iii.  1 5,  v.  30).  He  is  the  Prince  of  life.  He 
is  exalted  to  God's  right  hand  ;  and  thus  for  St.  Paul,  no  less 
than  for  the  Twelve,  it  would  seem  that  the  living  Christ  is 
seen  to  be  the  foundation  of  his  preaching  and  the  source  ot 
the  salvation  which  he  proclaimed.  Moreover,  we  seem  to 
be  the  more  justified  in  appealing  to  the  early  addresses  in 


214    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  Acts,  since  even   Schmiedel  allows   that   they  carry  us 
back  to  a  primitive  source. 

But  we  may  proceed  further  :  this  conception  of  the 
Christ  would  have  stirred,  we  can  scarcely  doubt,  the  eager 
curiosity  of  Jew  and  Gentile  alike,  wherever  St.  Paul 
delivered  his  message.  The  former  would  not  be  inclined 
to  accept  a  fellow  Jew  as  his  Messiah  without  substantial 
proofs  and  definite  statements.  The  latter,  the  Gentile, 
would  not  have  been  baptized  into  the  name  of  a  Jew,  of 
a  man  belonging  to  a  despised  and  hated  race  ;  he  would 
not  have  regarded  Him  as  the  Lord  of  his  spirit  and  the 
inspiration  of  his  life  without  some  proof  of  His  present 
authority  and  some  knowledge  of  what  manner  of  man 
He   was. 

Nowhere  has  this  been  more  strikingly  recognised  of  late 
years  than  in  Das  dlteste  Evangeliiim^  by  J.  Weiss  (p.  33  ff), 
1903.  I  select  this  writer  not  only  on  account  of  the  dis- 
tinguished name  which  he  bears,  but  because,  while  asserting 
so  strongly  the  pervading  presence  of  much  that  is  legendary 
in  our  Gospels,  he  is  also  constrained  to  admit  so  much 
which  bears  very  closely  upon  our  present  inquiry.  After 
pointing  out  that  at  first  sight  the  Pauline  Epistles  seem  to 
contain  no  trace  of  any  special  interest  in  the  earthly  life 
of  Jesus,  he  proceeds  to  show  that  this  statement,  so  often 
repeated  even  to  tediousness,  requires  serious  modification. 
As  a  proof  he  instances  the  brief  statements  made  in  i  Cor. 
XV.  3-4,  in  which,  as  he  says,  some  have  made  the  mistake 
of  seeing  an  exhaustive  representation  of  the  contents  of 
St.  Paul's  preaching ;  whereas  these  statements  are  rather 
meant  to  be  a  brief  introduction  to  the  more  detailed  con- 
sideration of  the  resurrection  appearances  in  the  verses  which 
follow. 

Moreover,  these  statements  in  i  Corinthians  cannot  be 
understood  without  being  supplemented  both  as  regards  the 
past   and    as   regards   the    future.       The   thought,  e.g.,  that 


TESTIMONY   TO    FACTS   AND   TEACHING     215 

Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  was  raised  to  power  and  glory- 
could  only  receive  its  completion  in  the  Apostle's  preaching 
when  it  was  added  for  what  purpose  this  Son  of  God  had 
been  so  exalted,  viz.  for  judgment  and  salvation.  As  one 
who  comes  from  heaven  and  saves  us  from  wrath,  Paul  had 
preached  the  Son  of  God  in  Thessalonica  (i  Thess.  i.  10),  so 
that  the  Parousia,  with  judgment  and  announcement  of  salva- 
tion, was  an  essential  element  of  the  Gospel,  and  Paul  speaks 
of  the  day  when  God  would  judge  the  secrets  of  men's 
hearts  through  Jesus   Christ. 

But  if  in  a  message  of  glad  tidings  the  announcement  of 
a  coming  judgment  was  included,  so  a  summons  to  repent- 
ance and  to  a  conversation  worthy  of  the  Gospel  must  also 
have  found  a  place.  If,  moreover,  it  may  be  fairly  con- 
tended that  Eph.  ii.  16  goes  too  far  when  it  marks  out 
the  union  of  Jew  and  Gentile  as  specifically  contained  in  the 
preaching  of  Jesus,  and  the  calling  of  the  Gentile  as  the 
peculiar  mystery  of  Paul's  gospel  (iii.  5,  6,  9),  yet  we 
cannot  but  think  that  some  teaching  as  to  the  relation  of 
the  Jews  to  salvation  and  as  to  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles 
would    have  formed  a  part  of  that  gospel. 

When  Paul,  e.g.,  would  preach  before  the  Gentiles  the 
Son  of  God  of  the  seed  of  David,  he  could  not  avoid 
expressing  himself  as  tc  the  relation  between  the  Gospel 
and  the  Old  Testament  promise  of  Messianic  salvation. 
Paul,  too,  we  must  never  forget,  had  to  face  the  hostility  of 
the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion,  and  he  would  naturally  be 
called  upon  to  explain  why  he,  a  Jew,  had  separated  himself 
from  Judaism,  and  consequently  to  explain,  as  in  Acts 
xiii.  26  ff,  how  the  Son  of  God  had  indeed  come  to  the 
Jews  according  to  the  promise,  but  had  been  rejected  and 
slain  by  them.  But  in  this  affirmation  he  could  scarcely 
refrain  from  making  reference  to  a  whole  series  of  incidents 
connected  with  the  mode  of  the  death  inflicted  upon,  and 
relating  to  the  character  of,  Him  who  died  ;    and  that  he 


2i6     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

actually  made  such  references  many  notices  in  his  Epistles 
intimate,  e.g.  Gal.  iii.  2  ;   Phil.  ii.  8  ;  2  Cor.  x.  i. 

Nor  could  the  Apostle  have  remained  content  with 
enunciating  a  mere  theory  as  to  the  obduracy  of  the  Jews, 
when  it  was  a  matter  of  justifying  the  new  religion  and  its 
propaganda.  That  Jesus  was  under  the  law  during  His 
earthly  life  could  only  have  formed  one  part  of  the  Apostle's 
preaching  ;  he  must  have  been  ready  with  vouchers  from 
deeds  and  words  of  Jesus  in  support  of  his  position  that 
"  Christ  was  the  end  of  the  law  "  (Rom.  x.  4).^ 

It  is,  in  fact,  inconceivable  that  in  his  missionary  preaching 
St.  Paul  could  have  disclaimed  all  knowledge  of  the 
particulars  relating  to  the  historical  Jesus.  How  could  he 
have  reckoned  upon  being  understood  even  in  the  smallest 
degree,  unless  he  could  have  declared  who  this  Jesus  actually 
was,  what  He  did,  and  what  He  taught.  Surely  all  this 
(and  much  more  might  be  added)  should  be  weighed  more 
carefully  than  is  often  the  case. 

But  all  this  aspect  of  St.  Paul's  missionary  preaching  is 
entirely  forgotten  and  ignored  by  Von  Soden  in  his  famous 
essay  in  proof  of  the  little  interest  the  Apostle  evinced  in 
thfe  human  life  of  Jesus,^  and  this  omission  on  the  part  of 
the  writer  is  rightly  insisted  upon  by  Peine  (as  earlier  by 
Paret)  no  less  than  by  J.  Weiss.  If  Paul  used  of  Christ  the 
highest  predicates,  Son  of  God,  the  Lord,  the  Judge,  the 
Saviour  ;   if  he  desired    to  make    any   impression    upon   his 

'  Cf.  Peine,  Jesus  Christiis  icnd  Paulus,  pp.  245,  248-9,  258,  261, 
267,  to  the  same  effect. 

-  Theolngische  Abhandliingen,  C.  Weizsdcker  gewidmet,  especially 
p.  115  (1892).  It  is  noticeable  that  even  Von  Soden  allows  that  St.  Paul 
shows  evidence  of  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  words  of  Jesus, 
and  that  on  four  occasions  he  makes  an  appeal  to  the  words  of  the 
Lord  (although  in  i  Thess.  iv.  15,  this  reference  to  the  words  of  the 
earthly  Jesus  is  doubtful).  See,  further,  below.  Various  strictures 
upon  Von  Soden's  article  have  been  passed,  not  only  by  Peine,  but  by 
Titius,  U.S.  p.  17;  Nosgen,  u.s.  p.  49,  and  in  England  by  Dr  Sanday, 
Inspiration,  pp.  2S8,  317  ;  Dr.  Bruce,  Expositor's  Greek  lestamcnt, 
i.  16;  R.B.  Drummond,  zc.s.  p.  11. 


\ 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     217 

hearers  by  his  preaching,  he  must  show  by  what  right  a 
man  whose  life  lay  before  them  as  belonging  to  the 
immediate  past,  and  who  was  thus  an  historical  person, 
could  claim  such  distinction  ;  he  must  be  ready  with  the 
proofs  that  this  man  was  in  truth  the  Christ,  and  it  was 
impossible  that  this  could  be  done  except  by  the  method 
of  instruction  and  information  as  to  the  life  which  Jesus 
lived  and  the  work  which  He  accomplished.  Nothing  could 
more  plainly  show  than  the  notices  in  Gal.  iii.  i,  and  i  Cor. 
ii.  2  how  vividly  the  missionary  Paul  had  represented  Jesus 
to  his  hearers  in  proof  of  the  greatness  of  the  love  which 
led  Him  to  sacrifice  His  life  (Peine,  u.s.  p.  57). 

Before  we  pass  to  an  inquiry  as  to  St.  Paul's  sources  of 
information,  two  or  three  further  considerations  may  be 
noted.  We  do  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Epistles  no 
less  than  the  Gospels  have  a  language  of  their  own,  and 
that  some  of  the  most  characteristic  terms  of  one  group  of 
writings  are  altogether  wanting  in  the  other.  (To  this 
subject  further  reference  will  be  made.) 

But  what  better  proof  could  we  have  that  the  language 
of  the  Gospels  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  Epistles  on  the 
other,  is  in  striking  harmony  with  the  particular  period 
which  each   group  of  writings   purports   to  describe  ? 

At  the  same  time,  whilst  we  recognise  this  difference  of 
phraseology  in  many  particulars,  we  may  also  recognise  a 
remarkable  continuity  between  the  leading  conceptions  of 
Gospels  and  Epistles  alike.  Take  as  a  single  example  what 
is  perhaps  the  central  conception  of  the  Gospels,  the  con- 
ception of  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  and  consider  how 
comparatively  seldom  the   phrase  occurs   in   the   Epistles.^ 

And  yet  no  New  Testament  writer  has  caught  more  fully 

'  Cf.,  e.g.,  the  frequent  use  of  the  word  ^KieXrjaia  in  the  Epistles,  with 
the  fact  that  it  occurs  only  in  Matt.  xvi.  18,  xviii.  17  in  the  Gospels, 
and  the  recurrence  of  the  phrase  "  the  Son  of  Man  "  in  all  four 
Gospels,  with  its  absence  in  the  Epistles.  See,  further,  Lecture  XIII.  and 
Dr.  Sanday,  Inspiration,  p.  289  ;  Expositor' s  Greek  Testament,  ii.  164. 


2i8     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

than  St.  Paul  the  essential  meaning  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
or  grasped  more  fully  the  innermost  and  distinctive  meaning 
of  that  phrase  "  the  kingdom  of  God."  "  The  kingdom  of 
God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness,  peace,  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost"  (Rom.  xiv.  17).  We  seem  to  be 
listening  once  more  to  the  Beatitudes  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  or  to  the  parables  of  that  spiritual  kingdom  the 
fruit  of  which  is  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  ;  and  "  what 
a  description,"  writes  Dr.  Sanday,  "  in  those  few  strokes  !  .  .  . 
how  undreamt  of  by  Pharisee,  or  Sadducee,  or  Essene,  or 
Zealot !  There  was  only  one  school  where  the  Apostle 
could  have  learnt  that  lesson — the  school  of  Jesus,  If  we 
had  only  that  one  verse  it  would  suffice  to  tell  us  that  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  had  really  sunk  into  his  soul."  ^ 

Secondly,  if,  as  is  still  sometimes  urged,  and  with  so 
much  perversity,  the  language  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  had 
seriously  affected  the  alleged  facts  and  the  language  of  the 
Gospels,  it  is  strange  that  St.  Paul's  essential  principles 
should  not  have  been  more  directly  enunciated  in  the  Gospels, 
rather  than  that  they  should  have  been  left  to  be  inferred 
from  them.  When  Dr.  Harnack  says  that  St.  Paul  was  the 
disciple  who  carried  out  the  boldest  enterprise,  vis.  the 
admission  of  the  Gentiles  to  the  Church  without  being  able 
to  appeal  to  a  single  word  of  his  Master,  such  a  statement 
helps  at  all  events  to  remind  us  that  St.  Paul  never  claims 
to  quote  a  single  saying  of  Jesus  in  support  of  his  contention 
that  the  barrier  between  Jew  and  Gentile  had  been  broken 
down.  That  the  Apostle  was  not  acquainted  with  the  spirit 
of  Christ's  teaching  as  to  the  value  of  this  distinction  and 
its  temporary  nature  is  much  more  than  we  can  fairly  affirm  ;  ^ 

'  "St.  Paul's  Equivalent  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  "  {Journal  of 
Theol.  Studies,  July,  rgoo).     See,  further,  in  Lecture  XI. 

-  See  J.  Weiss,  Das  dlteste  Evangelmm,  p.  38  ;  Wendt,  u.s.  p.  22 ; 
Drescher,  Das  Leben  Jesti,  p.  21  ;  Titius,  ii.s.  p.  18.  To  these  may  be 
added  Von  Dobschiitz,  Das  apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  13  {Religionsge- 
schichtliche  Volksbiicher),  1905. 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS    AND   TEACHING     219 

but  at  the  least  it  is  a  striking  testimony  to  his  sincerity 
and  candour  that  we  never  find  any  alleged  words  of  Jesus 
introduced  to  the  effect  that  no  Gentile  need  be  circumcised 
to  enter  the  Christian  Church/ 

If  we  remember  the  intensity  of  the  struggle  which, 
according  to  the  acknowledged  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  threatened 
to  divide,  and  for  a  time  divided,  the  early  Church  of  Christ, 
this  reserve  becomes  all  the  more  noteworthy. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  significant  that  as  occasion  de- 
mands, both  the  teaching  and  the  facts  of  Christ's  life  seem 
to  have  been  at  St.  Paul's  command  for  reproof  and  correction  ; 
that  when  he  is  writing  on  eschatological  subjects,  as  in 
I  Thessalonians,  he  has  in  mind  our  Lord's  teaching  in 
words  closely  resembling  the  teaching  on  the  same  subjects 
in  the  Gospels  ^  ;  that  when  he  is  writing  to  the  Corinthians 
on  questions  of  order  and  discipline,  he  is  able  to  refer  to 
an  institution  which,  whatever  difficulties  may  surround  it 
in  the  eyes  of  modern  critics,  is  closely  associated  in  the 
Gospels,  as  it  is  by  St.  Paul,  with  the  Lord  Jesus  and  with 
the  night  in  which  He  was  betrayed  ;  that  he  is  able  to 
draw  a  line  of  demarcation,  as  we  shall  see,  between  disputed 
questions  in  which  he  could  appeal  to  a  definite  command 
of  Christ,  and  those  in  which  he  could  claim  no  such 
authority. 

All  this  forms  an  undesigned  coincidence  with  the  fact 
that  St.  Paul  alone  gives  us  a  saying  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
definitely  so  described  outside  the  four  Gospels,  "  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,"  and  that  he  is  able  to  do 
so  for  the  immediate  purpose  in    hand,  viz.   to    enforce    a 

'  This  point  is  rightly  emphasised  by  Keim,  Geschichte  Jesii,,  iii.  583. 

^  Wendt,  U.S.  p.  13,  points  out  that  although  Paul  introduces  some 
traits  that  cannot  be  referred  to  a  tradition  from  Jesus,  yet  this  does 
not  injure  the  impression  of  agreement  with  Jesus  on  the  whole  as  to 
eschatological  questions.  The  remarks  of  Dr.  Kennedy,  St.  PaiiVs 
Conce;ptioTis  of  the  Last  Things,  and  his  references  on  p.  97  (1903),  are 
also  of  great  importance. 


220    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

practical  and  charitable  duty.  His  frequent  references  to 
our  Lord's  teaching  are  most  easily  accounted  for  by 
supposing  that  the  Apostle  had  at  his  command  some  oral 
tradition,  or  possibly  some  early  reminiscences  of  Christ's 
teaching  derived  from  his  own  early  acquaintance  with  some 
of  the  first  followers  of  the  Lord.^  Even  if  it  is  alleged 
that  in  such  a  passage  as  i  Tim.  vi.  3,  where  reference  is 
made  to  "  healthful  words,  even  the  words  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,"  we  have  not  St.  Paul's  words  at  all  ;  yet  at 
least  we  have  in  such  a  passage  a  proof  of  the  conviction 
of  the  next  generation  to  the  Apostles,  that  St.  Paul  had 
attached  the  greatest  importance  to  the  words  of  Jesus.^ 

It  is,  of  course,  quite  possible  to  maintain,  with  Heinrici, 
that  St.  Paul's  reference  to  a  command  of  the  Lord  in 
I  Cor.  vii.  25  (see,  further,  in  Lecture  XIV.)  presupposes 
that  the  Apostle  had  at  his  disposal  a  collection  of  the 
words  of  Jesus,^  and  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  the  same 
writer's  belief  that  there  was  very  early  in  existence  a 
collection  of  the  most  important  Old  Testament  prophecies 
which  bore  upon  the  theology  of  the  early  Christian  Church.'* 

But  let  us  look  a  little  more  closely  at  the  probable 
sources  from  which  St.  Paul  derived  his  knowledge  of  the 
life  and  teaching  of  his  Master. 

Whether  Professor  Ramsay  is  right  in  maintaining  that 
St.  Paul  had  actually  seen  in  Jerusalem  the  Jesus  with  whose 
fame  the  whole   city  and  all   Judaea   were  ringing,   I  do  not 

'  See,  in  this  connection,  V.  Bartlet,  Apostolic  Age,  p.  363. 

^  Nosgen,  u.s.  p.  66. 

'  Feine,  however,  thinks  that  the  traditional  material  was  quite 
sufficient.  Dr.  Rendel  ¥^axns  [Contemporary  Review,  September,  1897) 
maintains  that  St.  Paul,  St.  Clement,  and  St.  Polycarp,  all  had  access 
to  a  collection  of  Logia  of  Jesus.  See  also  Professor  K.  Lake  {Hibhert 
Journal,  January,  1905),  who  would  substitute  St.  Luke  for  St.  Paul. 
According  to  another  view,  St.  Clement  had  access  to  a  Pauline  manual 
of  the  words  of  the  Lord  [Encycl.  Bibl.,  ii.  1827). 

•*  Theol.  Abharidhingen,  C.  Weizsdcker  gewidmet,  p.  339;  and  also 
Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans,  p.  282, 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS    AND   TEACHING     221 

venture  to  affirm.      But  in  this  connection  a  most  important 
and    suggestive    passage   may   be   quoted   from    the  famous 
work  of  Dr.  Dalman.      He  is  speaking  of  the  Davidic  descent 
of  Jesus,  and  to  his  mind  the  most  convincing  evidence  that 
the  Holy  Family  was  really  possessed  of  Davidic  descent  is 
the  evidence  of  St.  Paul.     The  scribes  held  to  the  opinion  that 
the  Messiah  must  be  a  descendant  of  David,  and  so  it  is 
certain  that  the  opponents  of  Jesus  would   make  the  most 
of  any  knowledge  they  could  procure  which  tended  to  show 
that  Jesus  did   not  fulfil  this  condition.      And   St.  Paul,  as 
a    persecutor    of    the    Christians,    would    have     been    well 
instructed    in    regard    to    this    point.       And    as     he,    after 
mingling    freely    with    members    of    the    Holy    Family    in 
Jerusalem,  shows  by  his  language  that  he  knew  no  sort  of 
doubt,  it  must  be  assumed  that  no  objection  was  known   to 
him.      This  passage,  so  important  in  itself,  further  suggests 
to    us     that    if   a    persecutor    of    the    Christians    was    well 
instructed  in  the  one  historical  point  to  which  reference  is 
made,  there  is  no  reason    to  suppose  that  he  would   have 
limited    his    inquiries   to   that  one  particular.      It  is  indeed 
very  difficult  to  believe  that  whilst  St.  Paul  speaks  of  the 
Gospel    as   becoming  known   to   him  by  revelation,  and   of 
the    Son    of    God    as    revealed    in    him,    he    had    made   no 
acquaintance  with  the  Christianity  which  he  so  persistently 
attacked,  with  the  teaching  and  the  life  of  Him   in   whom 
the  Nazarenes  recognised  the  Messiah  of  their  country  and 
nation. 

No  one  amongst  recent  critics  has  admitted  this  more 
plainly  than  Dr.  Wendt,  the  German  critic  whose  name  is 
so  well  known  in  England.  He  points  out  that  Saul  of 
Tarsus  before  his  conversion  must  have  had  a  certain 
knowledge  of  the  views  of  the  Christians  and  of  the  life 
and  teaching  of  Jesus  in  whom  they  saw  the  Messiah  ;  and 
that  this  Saul  would  not  have  so  passionately  persecuted 
the  faith  of  the  Christians  unless  he  had  had  some  know- 


222     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

ledge  of  the  manner  in  which  that  faith  stood  in  contradiction 
to  the  fundamental  axioms  of  the  Pharisaic  party. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  that  St.  Paul  had  come  into 
communication  with  many  who  had  been  in  Jerusalem 
during  our  Lord's  earthly  ministry,  and  with  others  who  had 
been  associated  with  the  life  of  the  Church  from  its  earliest 
days,  who  had  been  both  ministers  and  eyewitnesses  of  the 
word.  All  this  we  can  infer  from  documents  which,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  can  be  fairly  used  for  our  purpose. 

Within  three  years  of  his  conversion  St.   Paul  had  gone 

up  to  Jerusalem  to  make  the  acquaintance  not  only  of  St 

Peter,  but  of  St.  James,  the  Lord's  brother.     The  word  which 

he  uses  in  this  connection   is  a  remarkable  one  (Gal.  i.  i8), 

IcTToprjaaL.      In  the  A.V.  and  all  other  E.V.  it  is  translated 

"  to  see  "  ;  but  in  the  R.V.  it  is  rendered  "  to  visit  "  in  the 

text,  and  in  the  margin  "  to  become  acquainted  with."      Dr. 

Edersheim    takes    it     to     mean    a    careful     and     searching 

inquiry  on  the  part  of  Paul  (Jesus  tJie  Messiah,  ii.  625),  and  it 

would  certainly  seem  that  its  usual  meaning  is  to  know  or 

learn  by  inquiring.^      In  his    article  on  the  "  Resurrection  " 

Dr.   Schmiedel  does  not  attempt  to  dispute    that    St.   Paul 

must  have  obtained  much  information  on  this  occasion,  and 

this  admission  is  something  (although  we  shall  have  occasion 

to  return  to  it  again).      If  we  attach  any  importance  to  the 

"  We  "-sections  in  Acts,  and  if  we  do  not  it  is  difficult  to  see 

what  part  of  the  New  Testament  has  a  better  claim  upon  our 

attention,  St.   Paul  must,  at  one  time  in  his   ministry,  have 

visited    Philip   the    Evangelist    at  Cssarea  ;    he   must  have 

lodged  with  Mnason,  an  old  disciple,  i.e.  a  disciple  from  the 

beginning,  from  the  great   Pentecost  (Acts  xxi.  8,  16)  ;  he 

must    have    been    in    close    fellowship   with    Barnabas    and 

Mark,  both  of  whom   enjoyed    the   friendship  of  Peter,   he 

'  See,  on  its  force  here,  Sabatier,  L'Apdtre  Paul,  p.  66,  3rd  edit.,  and 
Nosgen,  "  Die  apostoliche  Verkundigung  und  die  Geschichte  Jesu," 
Neue  jahrbiicher  filr  deutsche  Theologie,  i.  86  (1895);  also  Bacon, 
Story  of  St.  Paul,  p.  53  (1905)- 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS    AND   TEACHING     223 

meets  St.  James  in  Jerusalem,  in  the  latter  as  well  as  in  the 
earlier  part  of  his  career  ;  and  he  mentions  amongst  his 
fellow  countrymen  Andronicus  and  Junias,  who  had  been 
converted  to  the  faith  of  Christ  at  an  earlier  date  even  than 
St.  Paul  himself  (Rom.  xvi.  y)}  That  St.  Paul  preached 
what  he  spoke  of  as  his  own  gospel  we  know,  and  if  that 
gospel  had  not  contained  something  which  the  Apostle 
himself  claimed  to  be  characteristic  of  his  own  teaching,  it 
is  difficult  to  see  why  he  should  have  spoken  thus  at  all. 
But  there  is  no  vestige  of  proof  that  the  message  which 
St.  Paul  proclaimed  as  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  made 
him  indifferent  to  the  teaching  and  facts  of  the  life  of  Jesus, 
as  may  be  shown  from  each  group  of  his  writings.  It  is 
also  of  interest  to  bear  in  mind  how  often  St,  Paul  appeals 
to  traditions  (TrapaSocrets),  or  employs  words  of  similar 
import  in  his  appeals  to  his  converts.^  Moreover,  Feine, 
endorsing  the  earlier  remarks  of  Paret,  justly  calls  attention 
to  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  must  at  least  have  been  aware  that 
no  positive  saying  of  the  historical  Jesus  could  be  brought 
forward  in  opposition  to  the  teaching  of  his  own  peculiar 
gospel ;  ^  otherwise  he  would  have  been  in  constant  fear 
that  all  his  theology  would  be  endangered.  A  dispute 
between  Paul  and  the  primitive  Apostles  was  only  possible 
if  it  belonged  to  a  province  of  teaching  where  there  was 
room    for  various    deductions  and    conclusions,  and    not   to 

'  See,  in  this  connection,  the  noteworthy  remarks  of  Dr.  O.  Holtzmann, 
Zeitschrift  fiir  die  neutest.  Wissenschaft,  2  (1904),  and  Clemen, 
Paulus,  i.  350  (referred  to  further  in  Lecture  XXIV.)  ;  and  also  Zahn, 
Einleitung,  ii.  p.  162. 

-  Feine,  tt.s.  p.  68  ;  Seeberg,  Der  Katechismus  der  Urchriste7iheit^ 
p.  46,  50  (1903);  Heinrici,  Theol.  Abhandhmgeti,  C.  Weizsdcker 
gewidmet,  p.  347  ;  and  Bishop  Gore,  Romans,  i.  234.  On  the  force 
of  such  passages  as  Gal.  vi.  6,  with  reference  to  "  catechetical " 
instruction  in  the  early  Church,  see  Theol.  Abhandlungen, 
C.  Weizsdcker  gewidmet,  pp.  65,  366  ;  Seeberg,  u.s.  p.  268  ;  Wright, 
Sy7iopsis  of  the  Gospels,  p.  xli.  and  p.  3. 

^  Feine,  Jesus  Christus  und  Paulus,  p.  69,  and  to  the  same  effect 
Titius,  U.S.  p.  12. 


224    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

a  province  which  had  been  already  covered  by  a  decisive 

utterance  and  judgment  of  the  Lord. 

It  is,  however,  constantly  affirmed  by  some  recent  writers, 

as,   e.g.,  by   Dr.   Percy   Gardner  {A   Historical    Viezv  of  the 

N.T.,  p.  213),  that  St.  Paul  tells  us  in  the  plainest  and  most 

decisive  language  that  of  eyewitnesses  he  made  no  inquiry  as 

to  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  that  it  was  his  one  purpose  not  to 

dwell    on    Christ  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spirit.      But 

how  do    we   know,   and    how   can    we   possibly   affirm,  that 

St.   Paul  thus  acted  ? 

We  have  seen  reason  to  believe  that  he  could  not  have 

persecuted  beyond  measure  the  Church  of  God  (Gal.  i.  13) 

without  learning  something  of  the  Christian   community,  of 

the   teaching  and   circumstances  of  its    Founder ;   and   as  a 

conscientious  Jew  (and   undoubtedly  St.  Paul  was  one)  he 

would  scarcely  have  urged  the  Nazarenes  to  blaspheme  the 

name  of  Christ   without    making  it    his  business   to   gather 

some  knowledge  of  the   pretender's  Messianic  claims.      And 

are  we  also  to  suppose  that  St.   Luke,  who  was  St.  Paul's 

constant  companion,  took  such  an  intense  interest  in  tracing 

the  origins   of   the  Christian   faith,    and   yet   that   St.   Paul 

knew    nothing    and    cared    nothing,   for    those    facts    which 

engrossed  the  attention  of  his  intimate  friend  ?  ^ 

To  such  a  question   one  would   have  thought  that  there 

could  be  only  one  reply.      Moreover,  it  is  not  fair  to  use   the 

antithesis  Christ  after  the  flesh  and  after  the  spirit,  as  if  it 

was  meant  to   assert  that   St.   Paul  felt  no  interest  in   the 

circumstances  of  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus.      The  statement 

in  2   Cor.  v.    16  shows  us  what  such  words  may  mean,  and 

probably  do  mean.     The  Apostle  is  contrasting  a  knowledge 

of   Christ  (not   Jesus)   after  the  flesh,    with  the  knowledge 

which  enables  a  man  to  say  that  he  is  "  in  Christ,"  that  he 

'  More  than  one  writer  has  noticed  that  Von  Soden,  in  his  article  on 
the  interest  of  the  Apostolic  Age  in  the  Gospel  history,  makes  no 
reference  to  St.  Luke's  preface  {Theol.  Abhandlunge?i,  C.  IVcizscicker 
gewidmet,  p.  ii3ff  [1892]). 


TESTIMONY   TO   FACTS   AND   TEACHING     225 

is  a  new  creature  ;  in  other  words,  he  regards  Christ  no 
longer  as  a  Jew,  but  as  a  Christian  would  regard  Him — 
not  as  one  whose  thoughts  were  fixed  upon  a  material 
kingdom,  or  upon  an  earthly  Messiah,  but  upon  a  Christ 
living  in  the  hearts  of  men,  reigning  in  His  Church,  not 
after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spirit/  And,  naturally  enough, 
St.  Paul  fixes  the  thoughts  of  his  converts,  as  his  own 
thoughts  were  fixed,  upon  the  risen  and  ascended  Christ, 
who  was  for  them,  as  for  him,  the  hope  of  glory. 

The  Epistles  are  not  narratives  like  the  Gospels,  but  ^-^ 
letters  in  which  the  Apostle  warns,  exhorts,  and  cheers, 
letters  in  which  the  practical  bearing  of  the  Christian  life 
was  enforced  anew.  But,  nevertheless,  there  is  much  in 
these  letters  which  could  scarcely  have  been  understood, 
unless  writer  and  reader  alike  possessed  a  knowledge  of  the 
life  and  teaching  of  the  historical  Jesus. 

In  this  connection  I  would  refer  to  a  striking  and  helpful 

passage  in   the   Dean  of  Westminster's  Ephesians  (p.  23  ff). 

He    insists    upon     the    significant    fact    that    in    St.   Paul's 

thought  "  the  Christ  "  takes  to  so  large  an  extent  the  place 

of  "Jesus,"  and  he  sees  in   this  the  reason  why  the  Apostle 

dwells  so  little  upon  the  earthly  life  and  words  of  the  Lord, 

so  little  upon  the  facts  of  the   Gospels,  except  those  of  the 

crucifixion,  burial,  resurrection,  ascension.      Of  the  miracles, 

of  the  public  working  of  Jesus,  of  the   miracle  of  His  birth, 

we  read  nothing  ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  His  struggle 

with   the   Pharisees,   of  the   training  of  the  Twelve,  of  the 

1  A  similar  interpretation  adopted  by  Baur  is  endorsed  by  Feine,  u.s. 
p.  67,  in  an  admirable  discussion  of  the  verse.  See  also  the  remarks 
of  the  Dean  of  Westminster,  Ephesians,  p.  23  ff,  and  to  the  same  effect 
Menzies,  The  Earliest  Gospel,  p.  7  ff.  To  these  may  be  added  Barth, 
Die  Haicptprobleme  des  Lebens  Jesu,  pp.  2-3,  and  more  recently  still 
V.  Weber,  Biblische  Zeitschrift,  ii.  1 78  (1904).  Professor  Weber  strongly 
maintains  that  the  verse  in  question  marks  the  change  in  St.  Paul's 
conception  of  Jesus  as  a  purely  Jewish  Messiah  to  that  of  Jesus  as  the 
Messiah  for  all  mankind.  For  earlier  views  as  to  the  meaning  of  this 
much  disputed  text,  reference  may  be  made  to  the  Witness  of  the 
Epistles,  pp.  2-3.     See  also  Lecture  XXIV. 

15 


226    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

discourses  to  the  multitude.  The  relation  of  the  institution 
of  the  Eucharist  is  a  solitary  and,  as  it  were,  incidental 
exception.  Not  that  we  are  for  a  moment  to  suppose  that 
this  was  due  to  ignorance  of, "  or  indifference  to,  the  great 
story  of  our  Gospels  ;  some  of  this  story  at  least  must  have 
been  known  to  St.  Paul,  and  must  have  been  believed  by 
him.  "  But  he  had  a  message  peculiarly  his  own,  and  that 
message  deals  not  with  the  earthly  Jesus  so  much  as  with 
the  heavenly  Christ.  .  .  .  We  may  not,  indeed,  think  that 
'  Jesus  '  and  '  the  Christ '  can  ever  in  any  way  be  separated  ; 
St.  Paul's  frequent  combination  of  the  two  names  is  a 
witness  against  such  a  supposition.  Yet  there  are  two 
aspects  ;  and  it  is  the  heavenly  aspect  that  predominates  in 
the  thoughts  of  St.  Paul." 

This  passage  is  of  great  value  in  its  bearing  upon  our 
present  subject.  If  I  venture  to  criticise  it  at  all,  it  will 
simply  be  in  this  way  :  these  conclusions  seem  scarcely  to 
express  how  much  information  about  our  Lord  St.  Paul's 
statements  to  his  converts  presuppose.  It  is,  e.g.,  not 
merely  the  death  on  the  Cross  which  St.  Paul  emphasises, 
but  the  fact  that  He  who  died  there  died  for  our  sins. 

But  why  was  that  death  a  death  for  our  sins  ?  What 
was  it  that  conferred  such  a  special  and  unique  value  upon 
that  death  ?  Surely  the  sinlessness,  the  perfect  offering,  of 
Him  who  died  :  "  He  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew 
no  sin."  It  is  the  testimony  of  St.  Paul  ;  it  is  the  testimony, 
we  have  good  reason  to  believe,  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  John. 
And  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  statement  which  showed 
more  clearly  the  marvellous  impression  which  our  Lord's 
life  had  made  upon  His  immediate  followers.  Moreover, 
this  statement  comes  to  us  from  Jews,  from  men,  i.c.,  who 
knew  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin,  who  could  declare  that 
if  we  say  we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves  and  the  truth 
is  not  in  us.  It  comes  to  us  from  the  Apostle,  who  em- 
phasised most  strongly  the   propagation   of  sinfulness  from 


TESTIMONY   TO    FACTS    AND   TEACHING     227 

Adam  downward.  Such  a  statement,  in  short,  could  scarcely 
have  been  made  without  imparting  to  those  who  heard  it, 
especially  if  they  were  Jews,  some  definite  reason  why  it 
should  be  made  and  why  it  should  be  accepted. 

And  yet  St.  Paul  makes  it  to  his  Corinthian  converts,  to 
a  largely  mixed  Church,  without  any  explanation  or  enlarge- 
ment !  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  too,  that  in  his  earliest 
Epistles  the  same  significant  value  as  attaching  to  the  death 
of  Christ  is  stated.  To  the  Thessalonians  the  Apostle  speaks 
of  Jesus  as  One  who  died  for  us,  and  to  the  Galatians  he 
speaks  at  the  outset  of  Him  who  gave  Himself  for  our  sins. 
But  if  this  is  so,  then  at  least  it  is  evident  that  sinlessness 
was  not  first  attributed  to  Jesus  by  the  later  voice  of  the 
Church,  but  that  from  the  first  it  was  associated  with  Him 
as  the  essence  of  His  character  as  also  the  essence  of  His 
sacrificial  work. 

Let  us  look  in  conclusion  at  one  remarkable  feature  of 
this  knowledge  of  Jesus  which  St.  Paul's  words  again  pre- 
suppose. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  first  authoritative  life  of 
St.  Francis  of  Assissi  by  Bonaventura  was  written  the  same 
space  of  time  after  the  death  of  St.  Francis  as  that  which 
separates  the  death  of  Jesus  from  the  earliest  probable  date 
of  a  deliberate  record  of  His  life.  Further,  it  is  said  that 
this  life  of  St.  Francis  is  laden  with  miracles,  in  contrast  to 
a  life  of  the  saint  written  by  three  of  his  companions  twenty 
years  from  his  death,  a  life  singularly  free  from  the  miracu- 
lous. The  inference,  of  course,  is  that  our  Lord's  life  also, 
as  time  went  on,  became  laden  with  miracles. 

But  what  we  desire  to  point  out  is  this  :  that  in  the  case 
of  our  Lord  the  miracles  were  there  from  the  first  :  there  is 
no  question  of  "  the  growth  of  the  miraculous,"  the  miracu- 
lous is  involved  in  St.  Paul's  conception  of  the  Christ,  a 
conception  which  meets  us  in  Epistles  and  Gospels  alike.  It 
is  not  merely  that  two,  if  not   three,  of  St.   Paul's   writings 


228    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

date  within  twenty  years  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  and  that  the 
cardinal  miracle  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  emphasised  in 
them  again  and  again,  but  that  St.  Paul's  claim  insisted  upon 
in  each  of  these  Epistles  is  that  he  was  an  Apostle,  and  that 
the  signs  of  an  Apostle  involved  the  working  of  miracles. 
From  the  earliest  days  of  his  ministry  this  power  had  been 
his.  But  the  power  was  not  his  own  ;  it  was  derived  from 
Christ,  and  only  the  possessor  could  be  the  bestower.  Paul, 
an  Apostle  of  Jesus  Christ,  could  work  miracles  :  they  were 
among  the  credentials  of  his  mission  from  the  Christ,  just  as 
in  His  ministry  on  earth  our  Lord  had  sent  forth  His 
Apostles  with  authority  and  power  to  heal  the  sick  and  to 
-cast  out  demons. 

But  by  the  side  of  this  recognition  of  the  miraculous 
there  is  something  else  ;  there  is  a  reserve  in  the  appeal  to 
miracles  and  in  the  place  assigned  to  miracles,  a  reserve 
which  characterises  St.  Paul  no  less  than  his  Master.  The 
Apostle  does  not  see  in  miracles  the  fullest  proof  of  Christian 
power,  nor  does  he  assign  to  them  the  highest  place  in  the  rank 
of  Christian  gifts.  A  man  might  be  able  to  remove  mountains, 
but  without  love  the  power  would  profit  him  nothing.  So, 
too,  Christ,  whilst  He  could  appeal  to  miracles  in  proof  of 
His  Messianic  calling,  never,  on  the  other  hand,  ceases  to 
utter  His  words  of  warning  to  a  generation  "  seeking  after 
a  sign." 

All  this  caution  and  reserve  bears  upon  it  the  stamp  of 
truth.  In  an  age  which  we  are  assured  was  characterised 
by  a  craving  for  miraculous  powers,  in  an  Empire  the  chief 
cities  of  which  were  full  of  quacks  and  miracle-mongers, 
amongst  a  people  whose  sons  claimed  to  cast  out  devils, 
there  is  this  marked  and  significant  refusal  to  magnify  for 
mere  display,  or  gain,  or  popularity,  a  power  which  the  Lord 
possessed  and  gave,  not  for  vain-glorying,  but  for  edification. 


LECTURE    XI 

I    AND    2    THESSALONIANS 

IN  what  relation  do  these  two  Epistles,  which  we  are 
accustomed  to  consider  the  earliest  of  those  written  by 
St.  Paul,  stand  to  the  facts  and  the  teaching  narrated  in  our 
Gospels  ? 

There  is  a  striking  passage  in  Dr.  Sanday's  famous  article 
"  Jesus  Christ  "  (Hastings,  B.D.,  ii.  648)  in  which  he 
writes  :  "  Let  us  suppose  for  a  moment,  with  the  more  ex- 
treme critics,  that  a  thick  curtain  falls  over  the  Church  after 
the  ascension.  The  curtain  is  lifted,  and  what  do  we  find  ? 
St.  Paul  and  his  companions  give  solemn  greeting  to  the 
Church  of  the  Thessalonians  (which  is)  in  God  the  Father 
and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  An  elaborate  process  of  reflexion, 
almost  a  system  of  theology,  lies  behind  those  familiar  terms."  , 
But  we  read  a  few  verses  further,  and  we  find  that  this  same 
Jesus  is  spoken  of  as  the  Son,  the  Son  of  God,  in  a  most 
remarkable  connection.  The  service  of  these  Thessalonian 
converts  is  to  be  rendered,  as  a  result  of  their  conversion,  to 
a  living  and  true  God,  and  the  recompense  of  their  service 
is  in  the  power  of  His  Son.  "  How  ye  turned  unto  God  from 
idols  "  :  the  Apostle  is  reminding  them  of  an  earlier  teaching, 
of  a  knowledge  which  they  had  gained  in  the  past,  "  to 
serve  a  living  and  true  God  "  ;  and  then  he  adds,  still  remind- 
ing them  of  a  previous  teaching,  "  and  to  wait  for  His  Son 
from  heaven,  whom   He  raised  from  the  dead,  even  Jesus, 

which  delivereth  us  from  the  wrath  to  come." 

229 


230    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

If  a  whole  system  of  theology  lies  behind  the  first  verse 
of  the  Epistle,  a  whole  series  of  facts  lies  behind  the  words 
which  we  have  just  read.  It  is  indeed  quite  possible  that 
some  of  the  words  quoted  point  to  the  germ  of  some  re- 
cognised Confession  of  faith  in  Him  who  was  "  Very  God," 
as  contrasted  with  vain  gods  and  heathen  idols :  perhaps 
they  contain  at  least  the  germ  of  some  baptismal  Confession 
of  belief  in  the  Father  and  the  Son.^ 

In  the  Eiicycl.  Bibl.,  iv.,  we  have  an  article  entitled  "  Son 
of  God,"  written  by  an  American  professor,  in  some  respects 
one  of  the  most  painful  articles  in  the  whole  work.  Dr. 
Schmidt  argues  against  Dr.  Sanday's  reference  to  i  Thess. 
i.  lo.  His  first  point  is  that  it  is  impossible  to  prove  that 
the  Epistle  was  written  twenty-three  years  after  the  death 
of  Jesus.  Such  an  objection,  it  must  be  remembered,  entirely 
ignores  the  fact  that  nearly  every  modern  critic,  belonging 
either  to  the  conservative  or  to  the  liberal  school,  accepts 
I  Thessalonians  as  the  work  of  St.  Paul,  and  regards  it  as 
the  second  earliest,  if  not  the  earliest,  of  all  his  writings. 

But,  further,  Dr.  Schmidt  would  have  us  believe  that  in 
this  appeal  to  Pauline  literature  we  are  really  passing  away 
from  the  direct  transmission  of  the  words  of  Jesus,  and 
having  recourse  to  Hellenistic  sources.  In  Hellenistic  circles 
he  would  find  the  derivation  of  the  term  "  Son  of  God." 
But  we  have  already  seen  in  a  former  lecture  that  it  is 
impossible  to  find  any  parallels  to  the  New  Testament  use 
in  the  heathen  employment  of  such  titles  as  "  Son  of  God," 
and  in  their  application  to  kings  and  heroes  translated  to  be 
with  the  gods. 

Even  if  we  admit  that  no  contemporary  ever  called  Jesus 
"  Son  of  God,"  and  that  if  the  title  was  not  in  use  as 
Messianic  such  a  fact  is  quite  natural,  yet  it  must  not  be 
forgotten   that  we   have   to  deal,  as  of  the   first   importance, 

'  Dr.  Lock,  Art.  "i  Thessalonians,"  Hastings,  iv.  745;  and  see 
also  Seeberg,  Der  Katcchismus  der  Urchristenheit,  p.  70  (1903). 


I    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  231 

with  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Himself,  and  that  it  is  scarcely 
open  to  doubt  that  He  claimed  a  filial  relationship  peculiar 
to  Himself;  that  for  Him  the  title  "  Son"  meant  heritage  to 
the  throne  of  God,  and  that  that  relationship  could  not  be 
transferred  to  others  or  subjected  to  change.^ 

And  we  cannot  pretend  that  the  claim  to  this  unique 
relationship  was  unrecognised  by  St.  Paul.  The  Apostle 
was  a  monotheist,  jealous  of  the  rights  of  Jehovah  ;  and  yet 
he  does  not  hesitate  to  speak  of  the  Son  in  the  same  breath 
with  God  the  Father.  He  is,  as  it  were,  "  bracketed  with 
God  the   Father." 

But,  further,  as  the  Son,  He  is  to  be  waited  for  from 
heaven.  Elsewhere  in  this  short  Epistle  we  see  something 
of  what  this  implies  ;  it  implies  a  Parousia,  a  coming,  a 
presence,  a  judgment,  a  day  of  the  Lord.  And  with  such 
language  there  is  attributed  to  the  Son  a  power  and  an 
authority  which  could  be  nothing  less  than  divine.  No 
doubt  the  disciples  had  been  accustomed  to  call  their  Master 
Lord  in  His  earthly  lifetime,  and  possibly  in  some  cases 
they  employed  the  title  very  much  as  scholars  would  address 
a  Jewish  Rabbi.  But  now  all  is  changed,  and  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  Church  refuses  to  give  currency  to  the  title 
"  Son  of  Man,"  "  for  Jesus  is  Ruler  over  heaven  and  earth  "  ; 
"'the  Lord'"  (as  St.  Paul  calls  Him  more  than  twenty  times 
in  this  one  short  Epistle),  says  Dalman,  "  as  Paul  in  the 
Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  rightly  designates  Him  who 
comes  with  the  clouds  of  heaven."  ^ 

*  Dr.  Schmidt  does  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  Jesus  never  spoke  the 
Parable  of  the  Vineyard  and  the  Husbandmen,  but  that  it  was  the 
work  of  early  Christian  theology.  But  here  is  a  parable  which  comes  to 
us  with  the  attestation  of  each  of  the  first  three  Gospels,  and  the  reasons 
against  it  given  by  Jiilicher,  upon  which  Schmidt  entirely  depends,  are 
quite  insufficient  to  show  that  Jesus  could  not  so  have  spoken.  The 
parable  finds  a  place  in  a  very  recent  German  Geschichte  Jesti,  i. 
192,  by  P.  W.  Schmidt,  1904  ;  and  it  is  forcibly  defended  by  Zimmer- 
mann,  Der  historische  Wert  der  ciliesten  Uberlieferung  von  der 
Geschichte  Jesu  itn  Markusevangelium,  p.  81,  1905. 

-   Words  of  Jesus,  p.  266,  E.T. 


232     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

But  although  He  is  thus  the  exalted  Lord,  we  are  not 
permitted  for  a  moment  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  all 
power  is  given  to  Him  not  onlyi  in  heaven,  but  on  earth. 
The  Church  is  brought  into  closest  relationship  with  Him. 
This  Church  of  the  Thessalonians  is  "  in  God  the  Father  and 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Grace  and  peace  come  from  Him  as 
from  the  Father  ;  they  are  an  abiding  blessing  and  posses- 
sion :  "  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  " 
(i  Thess.  V.  28) ;  "  the  Lord  of  peace  Himself  give  you  peace 
at  all  times  and  in  all  ways "  (2  Thess.  iii.  16).  The 
Thessalonian  Christians  are  in  Him  as  they  are  in  the 
Father ;  their  life  in  the  flesh,  their  work  of  faith  and  labour 
of  love  are  accomplished  in  the  Lord.  The  Churches  of  Judaea, 
which,  although  separated  from  them  by  land  and  sea,  are 
at  one  with  them  in  peril  and  suffering,  are  also  in  Christ 
Jesus  ;  the  Apostle's  true  life  depends  upon  their  steadfast- 
ness in  the  Lord  ;  his  exhortations  flow  from  Him,  his 
commands  are  given   through   Him. 

And  not  only  does  Christ's  presence  permeate  the  life  of 
the  Church  and  of  the  Christian,  but  its  power  is  known  and 
felt  in  the  world  beyond  the  grave.  Free  among  the  dead, 
those  that  sleep  "  in  Him  "  shall  rise  first,  if  we  believe  that 
Jesus  died  and  rose  again.  From  whence  did  St.  Paul 
derive  this  conception  ?  It  is  quite  as  mystical  as  anything 
which  meets  us  in  the  writings  of  St.  John  ;  it  has  no 
parallel  in  the  Old  Testament  or  in  secular  literature.  No 
one,  e.g.,  is  said  to  be  "  in  Abraham  "  or  "  in  Moses,"  either 
in  life  or  in  death,  and  the  attempt  to  find  such  a  phrase  in 
secular  literature  as  "  in  Plato  "  can  scarcely  be  described 
as  successful.^  Moreover,  it  would  seem  that  this  early 
mysticism  of  St.  Paul  is  by  no  means  confined  to  this  one 

'  See  especially  Deissmann,  Die  neutestamentlichc  Forviel  ,,  in 
Christo  ^esu,"  p.  88;  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Rofnafts,  p.  160;  and 
references  to  earlier  writers  in  the  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  p.  428. 
See  also  H.  Cremer's  Reply  to  Harnack,  p.  127,  E.T.,  and  Bacon, 
Story  of  St.  Paul,  p.  239  (1905) 


I    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  233 

passage  ;  no  one,  e.g:,  can  fail  to  see  the  striking  similarity 
both  in  expression  and  in  spirit  between  such  a  passage  as 
2  Thess.  i.  12  and  John  xvii.  i,  10,  21-26/ 

But  if  this  mighty  and  continuous  power  is  attributed  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  both  in  this  world  and  in  the  world  beyond 
the  grave,  it  is  surely  no  wonder  that  a  special  stress  should 
be  laid  by  every  Christian  upon  what  was  known  of  His 
example,  of  His  teaching  and  His  precepts. 

Thus,  when  St.  Paul  writes,  "  For  ye  know  what  command- 
ments we  gave  you  through  the  Lord  Jesus"  (i  Thess.  iv.  2), 
we  see  how  the  Apostle  associates  purity  of  heart  and  mind 
with  the  thought  of  Jesus  (cf  i  Thess.  iv.  8)  ;  when  he 
prays  for  the  Thessalonians  that  the  Lord  may  direct  their 
hearts  into  the  love  of  God  and  the  patience  of  Christ 
(2  Thess.  iii.  5),  he  means  not  "  the  patient  waiting  for  Christ," 
as  in  A.V.,  but  rather  the  patient  endurance  of  which  Christ 
has  left  an  example  (R.V.).  In  their  own  sufferings  at  the 
hands  of  their  fellow  countrymen  the  Apostle  reminds  the 
Thessalonians  that  they  were  imitators  of  the  churches  of 
Judaea.  But  he  goes  further  than  this  ;  he  bids  them  not 
to  be  moved  by  their  afflictions,  "  for  verily  when  we  were 
with  you,  we  told  you  of  them  beforehand,"  "  for  yourselves 
know  that  ye  were  appointed  thereto,"  and  this  suffering 
associates  them,  not  only  with  their  fellow  Christians,  but 
with  the  example  of  Christ:  "Ye  became  imitators  of  us  and 
of  the  Lord  "  (i  Thess.  i.  6).' 

Further  endeavours  have  been  made  to  trace  other  points 
of  connection  between  our  Lord's  teaching  and  that  of  St.  Paul 

'  Bishop  Lightfoot,  Notes  on  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  p.  107.  See,  too, 
Nosgen,  u.s.  p.  72,  and  P.  Ewald,  Das  Hauptpfoblem  der  Evangelien- 
frage,  p.  82,  who  both  rightly  compare  the  familiar  formula  with  the 
phraseology  of  St.  John,  as,  e.g.,  John  xv.  1-5. 

^  For  these  and  other  points  in  connection  with  this  Epistle,  see 
Peine,  Jesus  Christus  und Paulus,  pp.  84,  295  ;  Wendt,  Zeitschrift  fi'ir 
Theologie  tend  Kir che,  Heft  i.  6  (1894);  Titius,  Der  Paulinisinus 
tmter  dent  Gesichtspunkt  der  Seligkeit,  pp.  10,  14  (1900) ;  Sturm,  Der 
AJiostel  Paulus  u?id  die  evangelische  Uberlieferung,  i.  21,  ii.  34,  33. 


234     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

in  these  two  short  Epistles.     Thus,  e.g.,  it  has  been  noted 
that  there  are  indications  that  St.  Paul  was   acquainted   with 
the  instructions  of  our  Lord  in   sending  forth  His  Apostles 
into   the  world  (cf   Luke  x.  7).      He  claims  that   he  might 
have  been  burdensome  "as  an  Apostle  of  Christ"  (i  Thess. 
ii.  6  ;   2  Thess.  iii.  8).       And  it  is  possible  that  there   may 
be  a  connection  between  other  words  in  these  Epistles  and 
the  same  charge  to  the  Apostles,  e.g.  we  read,  "  He  that 
rejecteth,  rejecteth  not  man,  but  God"  (i  Thess.  iv.  8);  and  in 
Luke  X.  16  we  read,  "  He  that  rejecteth  you,  rejecteth  Me," 
where  the  R.V.    enables   us  to  note   that  the   same   Greek 
verb  is  used  both  in  the  Epistle  and  in  the  Gospel.      But 
there  is  no  need  to  press  this  coincidence.      In  the  same  way 
it  may  seem  to  some   of  us  a   little   precarious   to   find   a 
reminiscence  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  2  Thess.  iii.  3,  although 
Feine,  while  he  frankly  admits  that  no  express  reference  to 
that    Prayer  is  to  be  found   in  any  of  St.   Paul's   Epistles, 
evidently  thinks  that  a  good   case  may  be   made   out   for  a 
reminiscence  here  and  in  Col.  i.  13.^ 

Further  reminiscences  are  claimed  of  our  Lord's  de- 
nunciation of  the  Pharisees,  and  if  we  put  side  by  side  the 
parallel  passages  (Matt,  xxiii.  31,  Luke  xi.  47),  and  compare 
them  with  i  Thess.  ii.  14,  some  interesting  points  of  contact 
may  undoubtedly  be  noted.  If  the  verb  iKhiuiK^iv,  which 
occurs  at  least  once  in  the  New  Testament  (in  i  Thess.  ii.  15) 
cannot  also  be  claimed  for  Luke  xi.  49,  yet  at  all  events 
the  conclusion  which  St.  Paul  draws  from  the  murder  of 
the  prophets  by  the  Jews,  vis.  that  the  nation  was  thus 
filling  up  their  sins  alway,  affords  a  striking  parallel  to 
the  words  of  our  Lord  (Matt,  xxiii.  31-2),  "Ye  witness 
to    yourselves    that    ye    are    sons    of   them    that    slew   the 

•  Feine,  u.s.  p.  252.  See  also  Chase,  The  Lord's  Prayer  in  the 
Early  Church,  p.  24.  Lightfoot  holds  that  here,  as  in  John  xvii.  15, 
there  may  be  an  indirect  allusion  to  the  Lord's  Prayer  {Notes  on 
Epistles  0/  St.  Paul,  p.  126). 


I    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  235 

prophets.     Fill  ye  up,  then,  the  measure  of  your  fathers." 
To   such   expressions   as  these   we   shall   return.^ 

But,  further,  this  holiness  of  life  and  patient  endurance 
of  suffering  which  the  Apostle  thus  enjoins  are  connected 
with  a  kingdom  (i  Thess.  ii.  12).  Christians  are  to  walk 
worthy  of  God,  who  calleth  them  into  His  own  kingdom 
and  glory  ;  they  are  to  be  counted  worthy  of  the  kingdom, 
for  which  they  also  suffer  (2  Thess.  i.  5).  And  if  it  be  said 
that  in  these  expressions  St.  Paul  is  using  language  common 
to  him  with  the  Jewish  Rabbis,  it  is  also  remarkable  that 
the  same  word  used  by  St.  Paul  with  regard  to  God 
"  calling  "  us  into  the  kingdom  is  used  by  our  Lord  Himself 
in  the  invitation  to  the  banquet  in  the  Messianic  kingdom 
(Matt.  xxii.  3,  Luke  xiv.  16).  So,  too,  in  the  expression 
"  to  be  counted  worthy  of  the  kingdom  "  we  have  an  exact 
parallel  on  the  lips  of  our  Lord,  an  expression  found  no- 
where else  (Luke  xx.  35),  "  to  be  counted  worthy  to  obtain 
that  age."  '^ 

No  doubt  St.  Paul  sometimes  uses  the  term  "  the 
kingdom  "  of  a  present,  and  sometimes  of  a  future  period  ; 
but  the  chief  point  to  notice  is  that  in  his  earliest  Epistle 
the  conception  of  the  kingdom  is  not  lost  sight  of,  but 
fills  an  important  part  in  Christian  instruction  (cf  Gal.  v.  21). 
And  not  only  so,  but  that,  as  in  the  Gospels,  so  also  in  these 
Epistles,  that  kingdom  is  a  moral  and  spiritual  kingdom, 
a  kingdom  both  within  and  among  the  Thessalonian 
Christians,  because  they  were  in  Him  who  was  the  Lord 
of  that  kingdom,  whose  grace  and  whose  Spirit  were 
working  in   their   midst.^ 

'  Other  alleged  references  seem  too  general,  as,  e.£:,  i  Thess.  v.  13 
and  Mark  ix.  50,  or  i  Thess.  v.  18  and  Matt.  vi.  10,  Mark  iii.  35  ;  and 
whatever  may  be  said  in  favour  of  an  Agra;phon  of  our  Lord  in  iv.  15, 
the  claim  of  i  Thess.  v.  22  to  be  regarded  as  an  Agraj^hon  can 
scarcely  be  regarded  as  valid  (cf.  Sturm,  ti.s.  ii.  39). 

-  Dalman,  Words  of  Jesus,  pp.  1 18-19,  E-T.,  and  Feine,  ti.s. 
p.  171. 

3  See,  further,  Feine,  u.s.  p.  173. 


236     TESTIMONY    OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

There  was  one  respect  indeed  in  which  the  kingdom, 
as  St.  Paul  knew  it,  was  even  further  removed  than  in 
the  Gospels  from  all  that  was  merely  temporal  and  material. 
The  glory  of  the  ascended  Christ  had  risen  upon  it,  trans- 
forming and  enriching  all  human  life,  and  a  new  and  divine 
power  was  not  only  teaching  men,  but  enduing  them  with 
much  strength  to  do  the  will  of  their  Father  in  heaven. 

But  this  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the  paradox  that 
this  power  of  life,  of  life  conferred  both  in  this  world  and 
for  that  which  is  to  come,  had  been  gained  through  suffering 
and  death,  the  suffering  of  Him  who  was  associated  in 
honour  and  worship  with  God  the  Father,  and  yet  "  Who 
died  for  us"  (i  Thess.  v.  9),  from  whose  death  it  follows 
that,  "  whether  we  watch  or  sleep,  we  should  live  together 
with   Him." 

There  is  no  statement  of  a  theory — only  the  statement 
of  a  fact  ;  but  can  we  not  see  how  much  such  a  simple 
statement  presupposes,  "  Who  died  for  us  ?  "  Its  brevity 
is  a  proof  that  the  Thessalonians  must  have  known  before- 
hand something  of  the  meaning  and  value  of  the  death 
of  Christ,  that  they  were  not  listening  to  a  statement  of 
the  consequences  of  that  death  for  the  first  time.  Of  one 
of  those  consequences  the  Apostle  in  the  same  breath 
reminds  them,  "  that  we  should  live  together  with  Him." 
And  so  it  would  seem  that  the  doctrine  of  the  union  of  the 
believer  with  Christ  was  no  afterthought  of  St.  Paul's, 
but  that  he  had  held  it  and  proclaimed  it  in  his  earliest 
teaching.^ 

"  Whether  we  watch  "  ;  so  the  R.V.  renders  the  verb  in 
the  margin,  and  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  the  Apostle 
who  used  it  and  the  Christians  who  read  it  must  have 
known  that  the  reiterated  counsel  to  watch  was  the  re- 
iterated counsel  of  Christ  Himself:  "What   I   say  unto  you, 

•  See  Bishop  Lightfoot's  important  comments,  Notes  on  E;pistles  of 
St.  Paul,  p.  ^^, 


I    AND    2   THESSALONIANS  237 

I  say  unto  all,  Watch  "  ;  "  Watch,  for  ye  know  not  "  ;  "  Watch 
and  pray."  Twice  in  this  short  Epistle,  and  three  times 
elsewhere,  St.  Paul  uses  the  same  word,  and  we  can  further 
mark  its  impress  upon  the  mind  of  the  Church  in  the 
favourite  Christian   names  Gregory,  Vigilantius. 

But,  further,  this  early  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  contains  not 
only  the  utterance  of  this  wise  and  divine  counsel,  but  also 
the  reason  for  it :  "  The  day  of  the  Lord  cometh  as  a  thief  in 
the  night :  let  us  watch  and  be  sober  "  (i  Thess.  v.  2,  5).  We 
are  so  accustomed  to  the  phrases  "  the  day,"  "  the  day  of 
the  Lord,"  "  that  day,"  phrases  which  meet  us,  let  us 
remember,  in  the  latest  as  in  the  earliest  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  that  we  forget  their  tremendous  force  and  their  original 
association. 

But  here  again  we  may  notice  that  we  are  evidently 
dealing  with  teaching  which  had  become  already  familiar  to 
the  Thessalonians,  "  for  ye  yourselves  know  perfectly,"  the 
Apostle  writes  (i  Thess.  v.  2).  And  it  is  important  to  lay 
stress  upon  this  element  of  previous  familiarity,  because  its 
admission  carries  us  back  of  necessity  to  a  much  earlier  date 
than  that  of  the  actual  composition  of  the  Epistle.  Moreover, 
this  expression  "  the  day  of  the  Lord  "  (cf  2  Thess.  ii.  2) 
meets  us  again  and  again  in  the  Old  Testament.  No  Jew 
could  mistake  its  meaning  ;  and  when  our  Lord  said,  "  Many 
shall  say  to  Me  in  that  day"  (St.  Matt.  vii.  22),  He  put 
forward  a  claim  to  the  administration  of  a  divine  judgment 
to  which  no  Jew  could  be  insensible  ;  and  St.  Paul  as  a  Jew 
would  have  known  that  he  was  transferring  to  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  in  his  language  to  these  Thessalonian  converts,  a 
share    at    least    in   the    prerogative   of   the    Lord   Jehovah.^ 

^  "Here  it  is  plain  that  St.  Paul  has  taken  his  stand  on  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  Himself.  For  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that  one  of  the 
lofty  claims  which  our  Lord  put  forward  with  emphasis  and  frequency 
was  His  position  as  the  Judge  of  the  final  destinies  of  mankind.  It  will 
suffice  to  refer  to  such  familiar  passages  as  Matt.  vii.  22-3,  xiii.  41, 
XXV.  31  ff.     This  was  the  point,  we  may  say,  at  which  the  foundations 


238     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

When  men  tell  us  that  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  our 
Lord  is  preaching  nothing  more  than  a  lofty  morality,  they 
would  do  well  to  bear  in  mind  the  force  and  the  meaning 
of  this  claim  to  judge  and  to  award.  But  St.  Paul  speaks 
not  only  of  "  the  day  of  the  Lord,"  but  of  the  coming,  the 
presence  of  the  Lord.^  Seven  times  in  these  Thessalonian 
Epistles  the  word  Parousia  occurs,  and  we  cannot  doubt 
that  for  St.  Paul  the  expression  found  its  parallel  in  that 
phrase,  "  the  day  of  the  Lord."  But  the  word  Parousia  in 
this  association  is  undoubtedly  a  New  Testament  word.^ 
It  carries  us  back  to  the  question  asked  by  the  disciples 
on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  "  What  shall  be  the  sign  of  Thy 
coming  ?  "  (Parousia)  ;  and  to  the  solemn  answer  of  our  Lord, 
in  which  the  word  thrice  occurs  with  unmistakable  emphasis. 
What  was  more  natural  than  that  an  expression  so  closely 
associated  with  such  a  scene  should  pass  into  the  current 
language  of  the  early  Church?  And  so  it  finds  a  place  in 
the  language  not  only  of  St.  Paul,  but  of  St.  Peter,  St. 
James,  and  St.  John,  all  of  them,  let  us  not  forget,  men 
of  Jewish  birth   and   of  Jewish   training.^ 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  admitting  that  some  of  the 
features  in  the  description  of  the  Parousia  also  find  a  place 

of  a  distinctly  Christian  Eschatology  were  laid  "  (Kennedy,  Sf.  Paul's 
Conceptions  of  the  Last  Things,  p.  194  [1904]).  And  he  rightly  adds, 
with  equal  emphasis,  "  There  was  nothing  to  correspond  to  it  in  Judaism. 
There  could  not  be,  for  the  Jews  had  never  conceived  of  a  Messiah  who 
should  pass  through  a  career  of  earthly  activity,  a  career  checked  by 
death,  and  then  return  as  the  medium  of  God's  fixed  purpose  for  the 
universe." 

^  The  Parousia  was  to  be  likewise  "  the  day  of  judgment,"  also  called 
"that  day"  (Matt.  vii.  22,  xxiv.  36;  Luke  vi.  23,  x.  12,  xxi.  34).  Dr. 
Charles,  Art.  "  Eschatology,"  Encycl.  BibL,  ii.  1375.  Cf.,  also,  Art. 
"  Parousia,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  iii.  674.  Cf.,  also,  Feine,  u.s.,  pp.  166,  177  ; 
Sabatier,  L'Apotre  Paul,  p.  104,  3rd  edit. 

-  For  Spitta's  attempt  to  find  parallels  to  its  use  from  other  sources 
the  present  writer  may  refer  to  the  note,  p.  127,  Epistle  of  St.  James 
(Westminster  Commentaries). 

^  See  also  Dr.  Kennedy,  St.  Paul's  Conceptions  of  the  Last  Thitigs, 
p.  159  (1902). 


I    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  239 

in  Jewish  literature.  St.  Paul,  e.g.,  speaks  of  the  coming  of 
the  Lord  "  with  all  His  saints"  (i  Thess.  iii.  13),  and  whether 
we  take  the  term  saints  to  mean  angels  or  men,  or  to 
include  both,  we  find  in  Jewish  literature  that  both  are 
represented  as  attending  the  Messiah.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  noticeable  that  one  striking  feature  in  the  description 
given  by  the  Apostle  to  the  Thessalonians  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  find  a  parallel  in  contemporary  Jewish  writers,  viz. 
"  the  rapture  of  the  saints  on  (or  into  the)  clouds  of  heaven."^ 

But  however  this  may  be,  the  truly  remarkable  fact  is 
that  such  a  description  should  be  referred  to  the  presence, 
the  return,  of  Him  who  while  on  earth  had  been  deemed 
unfit  to  live,  and  whose  name  had  been  once  blasphemed 
by  the  writer  of  these  two  Epistles  to  the  Church  of 
Thessalonica. 

Before  Him  Paul  labours  to  present  his  converts  as  his 
crown  of  joy  ;  and  his  hope  is  that  their  hearts  may  be 
established  unblamable  in  holiness  before  God  at  the  coming 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  with  all  His  saints  (i  Thess.  iii.  13). 

Now,  although  our  Lord  is  not  actually  called  the  Judge 
in  these  Epistles,  and  His  judgment  seat  is  not  mentioned 
as  in  2  Cor.  v.  10,  yet  in  St.  Paul's  language  He  is  so 
closely  associated  with  the  Father  in  relation  to  the  coming 
judgment  as  to  make  the  association  inseparable.  The  day 
of  the  Lord  is  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  the  question 
presses  upon  us,  and  a  very  important  one  it  is,  Whence  did 
St.  Paul  derive  any  justification  for  his  use  of  such  language  ? 
The  answer  is  from  the  words  of  Christ  Himself  In  this 
closing  portion  of  i  Thessalonians,  in  the  fifth  chapter,  St, 
Paul  again  uses  language  which  irresistibly  reminds  us  of 
our  Lord's  last  great  discourse  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and 
in    that   same   discourse  our  Lord  had  employed  language 

1  Thackeray's  St.  Paul  and  Contemporary  Jewish  Thought, 
pp.  107-10,  and  Dr.  Charles,  Art.  "  Eschatology,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  ii. 
1382. 


240    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

about  Himself  which  altogether  transcended  the  current 
Jewish  conception  of  the  Messiah.  Only  in  the  Similitudes  of 
the  Book  of  Enoch  is  the  Messiah  spoken  of  as  the  universal 
Judge;  elsewhere  God,  and  not  the  Messiah,  is  so  represented. 

Moreover,  it  is  one  thing  for  our  Lord  to  use  language 
about  the  Son  of  Man,  which  conceived  of  him  (as  in  the 
Book  of  Enoch)  as  the  Judge  of  men  and  angels,  but  quite 
another  thing  to  claim  that  that  conception  was  realised  in 
Himself.^  Whatever  difficulties  may  surround  the  description 
of  our  Lord's  trial,  it  would  seem  certain  that  He  went  to 
His  death  because  He  claimed  a  divine  prerogative  of 
Judgeship  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  dared  to  condemn  Him.^ 
The  case  stands  thus  :  Even  if  we  rule  out  the  Epistles  of 
St.  James,  St.  Peter,  and  St.  John,  in  all  of  which  our  Lord 
is  regarded  as  the  future  Judge  ;  even  if  we  rule  out  such  a 
statement  as  that  of  St.  Luke  (Acts  x.  42),  "  This  is  He 
which  was  ordained  of  God  to  be  the  Judge  of  quick  and 
dead,"  it  cannot  be  seriously  questioned  that  in  the  earliest 
Epistle  of  St.  Paul,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  associated  with  the 
Father  in  the  tremendous  prerogative  which  men  usually 
ascribe  to  God  alone,  and  that  in  this  ascription  language  is 
used  which  transcends  the  current  Jewish  view  of  the 
Messiah's  office,  and  that  this  language  is  so  employed  as 
plainly  to  indicate  that  St.  Paul  is  repeating  teaching  which  to 
a  great  extent  had  already  become  familiar  and  well  known. 
There  is,  as  we  have  said,  every  reason  to  believe  that 
this  teaching  carries  us  back  to  the  words  of  Christ  Himself^ 

'  See  Dalman's  note,  Words  of  Jesus,  p.  313. 

^  Cf.  Zahn  Das  Evangelium  des  Matthdiis,  pp.  694-5  (1903); 
and  Dalman,  zi.s.  p.  314. 

*  No  recent  writer  has  drawn  out  more  fully  than  Dr.  H.  A.  Kennedy 
the  many  points  of  comparison  between  the  lang-uage  of  St.  Paul  and 
that  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets  and  of  Jewish  Apocalyptic  books ; 
but  at  the  same  time  no  one  has  emphasised  more  firmly  the  many 
parallels  between  i  and  2  Thessalonians  and  our  Lord's  eschatological 
teaching,  which,  as  he  believes,  undoubtedly  influenced  St.  Paul's 
thought  and  words  (cf.  St.  PauV s  Coiiceptio7is  of  the  Last  Things, 
pp.  49,  55,  95,  180).     See,  further,  Lecture  XXIV 


I    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  241 

If  not,  its  only  basis  is  the  imagination  of  St.  Paul — an 
imagination  evolving  features  not  only  transcendent,  but 
absolutely  unique.  And  this  baseless  imagination  had 
wrought  its  effect  upon  the  lives  and  work,  and  upon  the 
most  cherished  hopes,  of  Jews  and  proselytes  in  the  Church 
of  Thessalonica. 

Let  us  look  a  little  more  closely  at  some  points  of  con- 
nection between  the  language  of  the  Gospels  and  that  of 
I  Thessalonians,  and  we  shall  note  a  similarity  both  in  word 
and  thought.  The  Apostle  (v.  i)  speaks  of  "times  and 
seasons,"  just  as  our  Lord  had  spoken  to  His  disciples  of 
the  times  and  seasons  which  the  Father  had  put  in  His  own 
power  (Acts  i.  7).  "  The  day  of  the  Lord  cometh  as  a  thief 
in  the  night,"  says  the  warning  voice  of  the  Apostle,  and 
we  at  once  recall  our  Lord's  imagery  in  His  last  discourse 
to  His  disciples  before  His  death  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel, 
and  in  another  connection  in  St.  Luke's.  The  need  of 
watchfulness,  the  fatal  security,  the  relapse  into  drunkenness, 
and  the  suddenness  of  the  destruction  as  travail  coming  on 
a  woman  with  child,  all  this  vividness  and  emphasis  of 
warning  meet  us  in  the  first  three  gospels,  and  we  are 
reminded  of  them  also  in   St.  John.^ 

We  must  be  careful,  no  doubt,  not  to  press    the  verbal 

'  Cf.,  e.g.,  John  xii.  35-6,  and  i  Thess.  v.  4,  5.  For  the  general  con- 
nection between  i  Thess.  v.  1-3  and  the  Synoptists,  see  Matt.  xxiv.  38, 
42-51  ;  Luke  xvii.  26-30 ;  and  between  i  Thess.  v.  6,  7  and  the  same,  see 
Matt.  xxiv.  42,  49;  Mark  xiii.  35,  2>T'>  Luke  xii.  35,  45,  and  xxi.  34. 

In  some  cases,  no  doubt,  the  verbal  parallels  are  noticeable,  e.g. 
aKpuiSios,  €K(})evyfiv,  fii6miv,  yprjyopelu,  dpoelaOai  (2  Thess.  ii.  2).  Sturm, 
2(.s.  ii.  35  ;  Peine,  zi.s.  p.  17,  point  out  that  the  description  of  the  Man 
of  sin  (2  Thess.  ii.  3)  has  many  points  of  contact  with  the  language  of 
our  Lord,  and  to  these  references  may  be  added  Kennedy,  SA  Paurs 
Conceptioti  of  the  Last  Things,  pp.  207-21.  See,  too,  Zahn,  Einleitung 
in  das  N.T.,  i.  p.  159  ;  Titius,  71. s.  15  ;  Wendt,  u.s.  19.  Bishop  Light- 
foot,  Notes  on  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  p.  72,  dwells  also  upon  the  special 
points  of  coincidence  between  St.  Paul's  language  here  and  that  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel  (xxi.  34,  36),  and  sees  in  it  a  confirmation  of  the 
traditional  account  of  the  close  intercourse  between  the  two  men. 

16 


242     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

similarities  between  i  Thess.  and  the  Gospels  too  far,  al- 
though in  some  respects  they  are  of  no  little  interest. 
Even  if  we  admit,  for  instance,  that  our  Lord's  own  words, 
as  given  to  us  in  Luke  xxi.  34,  "  Take  heed  to  your- 
selves, lest  haply  your  hearts  be  overcharged  with  sur- 
feiting and  drunkenness  and  cares  of  this  life,  and  that 
day  come  on  you  suddenly  as  a  snare,"  find  a  striking 
counterpart  in  Isa.  xxiv.  17,  20,  this  does  not  do  away 
with  the  fact  that  a  remarkable  parallel  exists  between 
the  language  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel  and  that  of  the  Epistle 
before  us.^ 

Another  passage  in  an  earlier  part  of  i  Thessalonians, 
to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,  remains  for 
treatment  in  this  connection,  "  For  this  we  say  unto  you  by 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  that  we  that  are  alive,  that  are  left 
unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  shall  in  no  wise  precede  them 
that  are  fallen  asleep"  (i  Thess.  iv.  15).  Have  we  here  a 
"  word  of  the  Lord  "  received  by  tradition  or  by  revelation  ? 
In  either  case  the  details  here  given  are,  as  in  the  closing 
chapter  of  this  Epistle,  in  striking  harmony  with  our  Lord's 
sayings  in  the  Gospels.  The  thought  of  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah  in  the  clouds,  of  the  angels  who  accompany  Him, 
of  the  trumpet  which  is  the  summons  to  the  elect,  all  these 
are  familiar  to  us  in  the  Gospels."      The  thought,  moreover, 

•  Sturm,  ti.s.  ii.  36,  carefully  points  out  that  whilst  in  St.  Luke  xxi. 
35  we  have  Troyi'y,  and  in  i  Thess.  v.  3  ciSiV,  this  may  be  accounted  for, 
as  has  sometimes  been  supposed,  by  different  translations  of  the  same 
word  in  a  common  Semitic  primitive  text  or  tradition  (see  Witness  of 
the  Epistles,  p.  405).  But  at  the  same  time  he  also  points  out  that 
Trayi'f  may  have  been  employed  from  its  use  in  an  eschatological 
passage  (Isa.  xxiv.  17) :  cf.  the  use  of  the  words  KpainaXr)  and  fxidr)  in  the 
same  passage  (verse  20).  St.  Paul,  in  his  injunctions  to  the  Thessalonians, 
might  easily  have  introduced  the  word  toStV,  not  only  because  of  the 
popular  expression,  "  the  birth-pangs  of  the  Messiah,"  but  as  a  remin- 
iscence of  the  words  of  our  Lord  in  Matt.  xxiv.  8,  Marie  xiii.  8. 

-  See  Charles,  Art.  "  Eschatology,"  Encycl.  BibL,  ii.  1381-2.  It  is 
strange  that  Von  Soden  in  the  essay  quoted  above  (p.  129)  should 
affirm  that  1  Thess,   iv.  15  contains  no  trace  whatever  of  connection 


I    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  243 

of  the  meeting  of  the  saints  with  their  Lord  in  the  air 
affords  at  all  events  a  striking  parallel  to  the  thought  of 
Matt.  xxiv.  31,  where  the  elect  are  gathered  together  to 
Christ  by  the  summons  of  the  trumpet.  A  reminiscence  of 
this  teaching  of  the  Lord  would  seem  to  have  been  again 
present  to  St.  Paul's  mind  when  he  writes  later  on  (2  Thess. 
ii.  i),  "  Now  we  beseech  you,  brethren,  touching  the  coming 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  our  gathering  together  unto 
Him,"  where  he  employs  the  cognate  noun  "  our  gathering 
together  "  of  the  same  verb  which  is  used  in  Matt.  xxiv.  32, 
of  the  gathering  of  the  elect.^ 

It  has  indeed  been  often  urged  that  this  teaching  of  St. 
Paul  as  to  "  the  last  things  "  is  derived  from  Jewish  Apoca- 
lyptic literature.  But  even  those  who  press  this  view  are 
constrained  to  recognise  that  there  are  features  in  St. 
Paul's  description  which  have  no  parallels  in  Jewish  litera- 
ture, and  this  absence,  which  is  unmistakable,  may  be  noted 
as  perhaps  the  most  striking  characteristic  in  St.  Paul's 
picture.^ 

Moreover,  the  passages  which  are  sometimes  cited  in 
this  connection  from  2  Esdras  must  be  greatly  strained 
before  they  can  be  brought  into  any  close  relationship  with 
the  Apostle's  teaching.  Thus  it  is  urged  that  2  Esdras 
v.  41  shows  that  others  besides  St.  Paul  had  been  busied 
with  the   same   problems   which   occupied  the  Thessalonian 

with  the  Gospels.  Lightfoot,  Notes  011  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  p.  65, 
thinks  that  the  Apostle  is  referring  not  to  some  recorded  saying  of  our 
Lord,  but  more  probably  to  a  direct  revelation.  The  use  of  the  phrase 
"  the  word  of  the  Lord"'  in  the  Old  Testament  seems  to  him  to  favour 
this  meaning.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  commenting  on 
I  Thess.  V.  2,3,  Lightfoot  considers  it  probable  that  St.  Paul  is  referring 
to  the  very  words  of  Christ. 

1  Peine,  u.s.  p.  179  ;  Titius,  u.s.  p.  15  ;  Kennedy,  u.s.  p.  169;  and  so, 
too,  Wohlenberg,  Der  erste  luid  zweite  Thessalonicherbrief,  p.  137.  On 
p.  167  Kennedy  gives  a  whole  series  of  striking  verbal  agreements 
between  2  Thess.  ii.  2-4,  8,  and  passages  in  St.  Mark  xiii.  and  St. 
Matt.  xxiv.     See,  further,  Lecture  XXIV. 

^  See,  e.g.,  on  this  point  Kennedy,  u.s,  p.  192, 


244     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Church.^  The  question,  however,  which  distressed  St.  Paul's 
converts  was  related  to  the  Advent  of  the  Lord  :  should 
those  which  were  then  alive  have  any  advantage  over  others 
who  had  previously  gone  to  their  rest  ?  But  the  question 
of  Esdras  is  concerned  with  the  people  of  Israel  :  was  the 
blessing  of  God's  promise  confined  only  to  those  who  lived 
to  see  the  end  of  His  judgments,  or  was  it  extended  also  to 
the  previous  generations  of  Israel  ?  The  whole  question  was 
a  national  one,  and  concerned  the  chosen  people  only.  And 
it  is  impossible  to  see  how  the  answer  given  to  it  involves 
any  literary  dependence  on  the  part  of  St.  Paul  :  "  I  will 
liken  my  judgment  unto  a  ring  ;  like  as  there  is  no  slackness 
of  the  last,  even  so  there  is  no  swiftness  of  the  first." 

Or,  again,  if  such  words  as  2  Esdras  xiii.  24  had  any  real 
bearing  upon  the  question  of  the  Advent  with  which  St.  Paul 
was  concerned  ;  if  they  contained  a  current  Jewish  belief,  why 
did  not  the  Apostle  refer  to  them  ?  "  Know  this,  therefore 
that  they  which  be  left  behind  are  more  blessed  than  they 
that  be  dead."  The  question  which  pained  the  minds  of 
St.  Paul's  converts  as  to  whether  those  who  died  before  the 
Lord's  Parousia  should  share  in  its  blessedness  was  a  very 
natural  one,  but  the  answer  given  in  2  Esdras  as  to  the 
greater  blessedness  of  those  which  are  left  is  the  exact 
opposite  of  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul.^  Even  if,  therefore,  the 
phrase  "  they  that  are  left  "  was  "  taken  over  from  Judaism," 
we  have  still  to  account  for  the  fact  that  the  Jewish  teaching 
connected  with  the  last  days,  and  with  those  who  should  see 
them,  was  so  very  different  from  the  judgment  of  St.  Paul. 
Moreover,  St.  Paul,  it  will  be  noticed,  passed  his  judgment 
not  as  if  he   had  in   mind  any  current  or  popular  belief,  but 

'  See  Mr.  Ropes,  Die  Spruche  Jesu^  p.  154;  sec  also  Thackeray,  St. 
Paul  a7id  Contemporary  Jewish  Thought, -p-  104;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  Wohlcnberg.ZJ^r^^/J-/^  Thcssalofticherbrief,  p.  98,  who  thinks  that 
the  alleged  likeness  urged  by  Steck  deserves  no  further  consideration, 
and  Lock,  "  i  Thessalonians,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  iv.  745. 

-  See  Wohlenberg,  u.s.  p.  98,  as  against  Thackeray,  ti.s.  p.  104. 


i    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  245 

in  the  most  solemn  and  emphatic  manner  by  appealing  to  a 
"  word  of  the  Lord."  ^ 

In  many  respects  it  would  seem  that  there  is  no  need  to 
go  beyond  the  Synoptic  Gospels  for  many  of  the  features  in 
St.  Paul's  description  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord.^  But  even 
if  there  are  some  features  to  which  we  cannot  find  a  precise 
parallel  in  the  sayings,  recorded  in  our  Gospels,  this  need  not 
surprise  us. 

It  may  be  that  in  the  words,  "  We  which  are  alive,  that  are 
left  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  shall  in  no  wise  precede 
them  that  are  fallen  asleep,"  we  have  one  of  the  Logia  {Logoi) 
of  the  Lord  which  may  find  a  place  outside  those  recorded  by 
our  four  Evangelists,  and  the  words  are  so  regarded  by  one 
of  the  most  thoughtful  of  recent  writers  on  the  Logia,  who 
is  certainly  not  disposed  to  over-rate  their  number.  And 
we  must  not  forget  that  St.  Paul  sometimes  definitely  shows 
us  that  he  had  access  to  facts  and  teaching  which  are  not 
recorded  in  our  Gospels  (cf  Acts  xx.  35,  i  Cor.  xv.  5-7),  and 
in  the  words  we  are  considering  it  is  possible  no  doubt  to 
find  another  instance  of  such  knowledge.^ 

At  the  same  time  these  words  do  not  go  beyond  a  very 
natural  inference  from  the  sayings  of  Christ  which  the 
Evangelists  have  given  us.  The  question  as  to  whether  the 
members  of  the  Church,  who  were  already  dead,  should  share 

1  The  latest  writer  on  Jewish  Messianic  hopes  still  sees  in  the  words 
something  fantastic  ;  but  he  is' inclined  to  regard  them  as  not  so  "  offen- 
sive "  if  we  regard  the  feature  of  "  the  meeting  the  Lord  in  the  air  "  as 
a  compromise  between  the  Jewish  Messianic  hopes  which  were  centred 
in  this  world  and  the  hopes  which  were  centred  in  the  heavens  ;  between 
the  lower  and  the  higher,  as  he  calls  it,  of  the  old  and  new  eschatology 
{Die  Messianisch-Apokaly;ptischen  Hoffnungen  des  Judenthmns,  p. 
114  [1903],  by  W.  Baldensperger).  But  the  words  need  not  be  explained 
as  a  compromise  ;  they  institute  not  only  a  new  feature,  but  they  claim 
a  distinct  and  decisive  authority  as  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

^  Zahn,  Einleitung  in  des  N.T.,  p.  159;  Feine,  u.s.  pp.  178-9; 
Wendt,  U.S.  p.  15  ;  Titius,  u.s.  p.  15. 

3  Wohlenberg,  Der  erste  utid  zweite  I'hessalonicherbrief,  p.  103 
(1903)  ;  Zahn,  u,s.  p,  159. 


246     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

in  the  glories  of  the  kingdom  is  not  actually  considered  by 
our  Lord  in  so  many  words.  But  side  by  side  with  the 
promise  that  some  should  live  to  see  His  return,  there  is  the 
declaration  that  others  should  die  previously  (Matt.  xvi.  28, 
Mark  ix.  i,  Luke  ix.  27  ;  and  cf.  Matt.  xx.  23,  Mark  x.  39, 
John  xiii.  36,  xxi.  18)  ;  and  again  and  again  the  thought 
recurs  that  all  would  share  in  the  glory  of  the  Messianic 
kingdom,  that  for  this  end  the  dead  should  be  raised,  the 
dead  in  Christ,  and  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  who  had 
longed  to  see   His  day.^ 

There  are  one  or  two  other  important  thoughts  closely 
connected  with  this  latter  part  of  i  Thessalonians  and  with 
the  thought  of  our  Lord's  return.  "  The  Saviour  is  also  the 
Judge."  "  It  is  a  striking  paradox,  and  one  which  we  may 
gather  from  the  words  of  St.  Paul's  earliest  Epistles.  He 
prays  for  his  converts  that  they  may  be  presented  entire  and 
without  blame  at  the  coming  of  the  Lord  (i  Thess.  v.  23)  ; 
he  reminds  them  that  God  had  not  appointed  them  unto 
wrath,  but  unto  obtaining  salvation  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  (i  Thess.  v.  9). 

"  The  Saviour  is  also  the  Judge."  Here,  as  Dr.  Harnack 
has  forcibly  reminded  us,  we  have  not  only  a  paradox,  but  a 
paradox  in  which  Christianity  shows  its  superiority  to  other 
religions  of  the  world.  In  days  when  we  hear  so  much  of 
the  study  of  comparative  religions  we  do  well  to  emphasise 
the  features  by  which  Christianity  differs  from  other  religious 
systems.^ 

Another  thought  of  a  different  kind  may  be  also  con- 
nected with  the  same  promise  and  expectation  of  our  Lord's 
return.  It  has  often  been  pointed  out  with  great  force  that 
no  real  analogy  exists  between  the  expected  return  of  our 
Lord  and  the  expectation   of  the  return  of  our  own   King 

'  Wendt,  U.S.  p.  15  ;  Zahn,  u.s.  p.  160. 

*  Die  Mission  tmd  Ausbreitiitig dcs  Christentums,  p.  66  (1902). 

^  See  further  on  this  point,  Lectures  XX.  and  XXIV. 


I    AND   2   THESSALONIANS  247 

Arthur.  In  the  latter  case  this  expectation,  as  is  the  case 
in  other  alleged  parallels,  was  based  upon  the  supposition 
that  death  had  never  taken  place  ;  but  in  the  case  of  our 
Lord,  the  expectation  was  preceded  by  an  indubitable 
historical  fact — the  crucifixion. 

Men  have  sometimes  gone  further  back  in  search  for 
a  parallel,  and  we  are  reminded  of  the  expectation  which 
prevailed  in  the  Roman  Empire  that  Nero  would  return 
from  the  East  with  a  large  host  to  defeat  his  enemies.  And 
here,  again,  the  expectation  was  based  upon  a  denial  of 
death,  upon  the  supposition  that  the  dreaded  Nero  had 
never  died. 

But  this  is  not  all.  It  is  a  fact,  and  we  need  not  dispute 
it,  that  this  belief  in  the  return  of  Nero  arose  very  shortly 
after  his  death.  Here,  then,  it  might  be  urged,  we  have  a 
signal  proof  of  the  way  in  which  such  stories  easily  and 
quickly  gained  credence.  The  vital  point,  however,  is  not 
how  quickly  the  belief  arose,  but  how  lengthy  was  the  endur- 
ance which  it  secured.  Nero  died  in  68  A.D.  Five  years 
passed,  and  the  belief  in  his  return  was  widely  spread  among 
the  uneducated  people  of  the  Gentile  world. 

Yet  another  ten  years  passed,  and  we  reach  the  date 
which  marked  the  assumption  of  the  last  pretender  to  the 
part  of  the  dreaded  tyrant.  Little  by  little  the  belief  in  the 
return  of  a  Nero,  conquering  and  to  conquer,  had  been 
waning,  and  by  the  close  of  the  first  century  it  had  appar- 
ently ceased  to  exist. 

But  how  can  we  compare  a  belief  which  embraced,  say, 
some  twenty  to  thirty  years  with  the  belief  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  the  return  of  Jesus  Christ,  strong  and  enduring  in 
millions  of  Christian  hearts  to-day,  which  accept  in  humble 
faith  and  trust  the  angel's  message  of  hope  and  joy,  "  This 
same  Jesus,  which  was  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  .shall 
so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  Him  go  into 
heaven  "  ? 


248     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

In  conclusion,  we  should  do  well  to  remember  that  the 
large  space  devoted  to  the  subject  of  our  Lord's  return  in 
these  two  short  Epistles  to  the  Thessalonians  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  subject  was  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  those 
to  whom  St.  Paul  was  writing. 

But  if  the  Apostle  could  adduce  this  wealth  of  teaching 
about  this  one  subject,  the  Parousia,  as  need  required,  it  is  a 
fair  inference  that  he  must  have  had  acquaintance  with  other 
large  tracts  of  our  Lord's  teaching,  and  that  he  could  have 
drawn  upon  that  knowledge  if  there  had  been  any  immediate 
cause.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  these  Epistles  we 
have  references  to  the  traditions  which  St.  Paul  had  received  ; 
to  the  charges  which  he  gave  his  followers  in  the  Lord 
Jesus;  to  the  word  of  hearing,  i.e.  the  word  of  God,  the 
Gospel,  which  worked  in  them  that  believed.  But  without 
attaching  too  much  weight  to  such  expressions,  we  have 
endeavoured  to  show  how  fully  St.  Paul  was  conversant  with 
the  great  absorbing  topic  which  engrossed  the  Thessalonians ; 
and  how  much  is  pre-supposed  in  his  words,  what  a  know- 
ledge of  the  facts  connected  with  our  Lord's  life  and  work 
underlies  that  one  verse  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Apostle's 
earliest  Epistle  ;  "  And  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  heaven, 
^  whom  He  raised  from  the  dead,  even  Jesus,  which  delivereth 
us  from  the  wrath  to  come." 


LECTURE   XII 

EPISTLE    TO    THE    GALATIANS 

A  CONSIDERABLE  number  of  modern  critics  incline 
to  the  belief  that  in  Galatians  we  have  the  earliest  of 
St.  Paul's  writings,  If  this  is  the  case,  it  would  obviously 
increase  the  value  of  its  testimony  to  the  facts  of  our  Lord's 
Life.  But  in  any  case  we  are  justified  in  believing  that  we 
are  dealing  here  with  an  authentic  Epistle  of  St.  Paul,  as 
I  have  tried  to  show,  in  spite  of  some  recent  very  arbitrary 
and  unfounded  attacks. 

Now  there  is  one  notice  in  this  Epistle  which,  even  if  it 
stood  alone,  would  help  us  to  realise  the  fact  that  St.  Paul 
had  access  to  primary  sources  of  information.  In  Gal.  i.  i8 
we  read,  "  And  after  three  years  I  went  up  to  Jerusalem  to 
inquire  of  Peter."  I  have  already  spoken  of  the  force  of  the 
word  "  to  inquire  "  which  the  Apostle  uses,  and,  indeed,  even 
in  very  unexpected  quarters  we  may  find  a  remarkable 
testimony  to  its  importance. 

Thus,  after  speaking  of  the  appearances  of  the  risen 
Lord  in  i  Cor.  xv..  Dr.  Schmiedel  writes,  "  Unquestionably 
this  passage  {i.e.  Gal.  i.  i8)  goes  back  to  the  communications 
made  by  Peter  during  that  fifteen  days'  visit  of  Paul  three 
years  after  the  conversion  of  the  latter"  {Encycl.  Bibl.,  Art. 
"  Gospels,"  ii.  1 879) ;  and  again,  "  during  his  fifteen  days' 
visit  to  Peter  and  James  (Gal.  i.  18),  Paul  had  the  best 
opportunity  to  perfect  his  knowledge  on  the  subject  in  the 

249 


250    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

most  authentic  manner  "  {Encycl.  Bibl.,  Art.  "  Resurrection," 

4057)-' 

But  we  surely  cannot  suppose  that  this  rich  opportunity 
was  Hmited  to  information  as  to  the  appearances  of  the 
risen  Lord,  important  as  such  information  would  obviously 
be.  And  this  Epistle  before  us  contains  many  indications 
that  St.  Paul's  information  could  not  have  been  so  limited, 
and  that  a  large  amount  of  information  on  the  part  of  his 
readers  is  also  taken  for  granted  by  the  Apostle. 

In  the  opening  verses  of  the  first  chapter  not  only  is  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  taken  for  granted,  but  we  read  that, 
"  He  gave  Himself  for  our  sins  "  (Gal.  i.  4).  Although  the 
expression  is  not  precisely  the  same,  we  are  at  once  reminded 
of  the  statement  made  to  the  Corinthians,  in  which  the 
resurrection  and  the  atoning  death  of  Christ  occupy  the 
most  prominent  place  in  that  which  the  Apostle  had  received 
(i  Cor.  XV.  3).  If,  then,  this  Epistle  is  the  earliest  of  the 
Apostle's  writings,  it  is  in  itself  a  means  by  which  we  may 
carry  back  the  testimony  of  i  Corinthians  to  an  earlier  date, 
and  see  a  proof  of  the  consistent  manner  in  which  the 
Apostle  preached  everywhere  and  at  all  times  the  same 
tradition. 

But  as  in  writing  to  the  Corinthians  there  was  occasion  to 
emphasise  the  fact  and  nature  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
so  in  writing  to  the  Galatians  there  was  occasion  to  emphasise 
the  fact  and  nature  of  the  Cross  of  Christ  ;  and  the  Apostle 
does  this  in  a  manner  which  shows  that  he  must  have  been 
very  closely  acquainted  with  the  details  of  our  Lord's  death. 
In  the  Gospels,  e.g.,  our  Lord  is  spoken  of  as  given  up, 
"  betrayed  "  into  the  hands  of  wicked  men  ;  but  at  the  same 
time,  in  the  Gospels  wc  are  plainly  taught  to  see  that  that 
betrayal  was  voluntarily  submitted  to  ;  and  so  here  the 
Apostle  speaks  of  "  the  Son  of  God  who  loved  me  and  gave 
Himself  up  for  me  "  (Gal.  ii.  20,  R.V.).      In   the  verb  "gave 

'  On  the  force  of  the  word  Jcrro/j/Ja-ai  (Gal  i.  18),  see  Lecture  X. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  251 

Himself  up  "  we  have  precisely  the  same  word  which  is  used 
in  each  of  the  four  Gospels  of  our  Lord's  betrayal  :  "  He  was 
given  up,"  and  yet  "  He  gave  Himself  up  "  ;  and  there  is  no 
occasion  to  insist  upon  seeing  in  this  passage  with  Von 
Soden  in  the  essay  already  mentioned  (p.  116)  any  reference 
to  the  words  of  Isa.  liii.  12.^  Nor  does  it  seem  fanciful 
to  recognise  in  the  appeal  which  so  closely  follows  an  in- 
timation that  the  Apostle  had  so  plainly  painted  Christ 
before  His  Galatian  converts  that  they  had,  as  it  were,  seen 
Him  with  their  bodily  eyes,  and  that,  too,  as  One  crucified 
(Gal.  iii.  i).^ 

In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  remember  the  significant 
fact  that  St.  Paul  uses  the  word  "  tree  "  of  the  Cross  in  this 
Epistle,  and  that  he  uses  it  once  elsewhere,  when  he  v/as 
probably  addressing  some  of  the  members  of  these  same 
Galatian  Churches  (cf.  Acts  xiii.  29  ;  Gal.  iii.  13).  But  the 
same  word  is  used  of  the  Cross  twice  by  St.  Peter  (in  Acts  v. 
30,  X.  39),  and  once  again  in  his  first  Epistle  (i  Pet.  ii.  24). 
The  joint  use  of  this  significant  word  by  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul  alike  seems  in  itself  to  point  to  some  common  and 
familiar  recital  of  the  story  of  the  Cross  and  of  the  reigning 
of  the  Lord  from  the  tree.  There  are,  of  course,  many  other 
indications  which  point  to  a  similar  probability  in  the  various 
notices  of  the  New  Testament  Epistles. 

But  whilst  St.  Paul  thus  places  in  the  forefront  of  his 
Epistle  the  death  and  the  resurrection,  there  in  no  proof 
that  his  knowledge  and  his  interest  were  limited,  as  we  are 
so  often  assured,  to  these  two  facts  of  the  Gospel  record. 

He  refers  to  this  Christ  whom  he  preached  as  being  of 
the  seed  of  Abraham  ;  he  knows  that  there  was  a  James  in 

^  For  Dr.  E.  A.  Abbott's  criticism  on  the  word  TrapaSt'Sw/it,  see 
Lecture  XIII. 

^  On  the  force  of  the  word  TrpoeypcKp-q,  as  referring  to  the  vivid  repre- 
sentation of  the  details  of  the  Passion  (Tyndale  renders  it  "  described  "), 
see  Furrer,  Das  Leben  Jesii,  p.  14  (1904);  Sabatier,  DA;p6tre  Paul, 
p.  64,  3rd  edit. ;  Nosgen,  u.s   p.  46  ;  Peine,  u.s.  p.  55. 


252     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

the  family  to  which  the  Christ  belonged  ;  he  speaks  of  him 
as  "  the  Lord's  brother  "  ;  he  refers  to  Cephas  and  John  as 
prominent  members  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem,  a  reference 
entirely  in  harmony  with  all  that  we  may  gather  from  the 
Gospel  narrative  ;  he  speaks  of  his  persecution  of  "  the  Church 
of  God"  (i.  13),  and  the  inference  is  that  he  was  aware  that 
from  a  very  early  date  a  Christian  community  had  existed  to 
which  the  same  name  was  given  as  Jesus  had  given  to  His 
Church.^  And  in  this  connection  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that 
in  the  first  chapter  of  this  Epistle,  St.  Paul  draws  a  marked 
contrast  between  that  which  he  had  learnt  from  flesh  and 
blood,  i.e.  from  other  men  like  himself,  and  that  which  had 
been  revealed  to  him  through  Jesus  Christ.  So,  too,  our 
Lord,  when  He  foretold  the  founding  and  the  triumph  of  His 
Church  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  drew  the  same  contrast  in 
St.  Peter's  case  between  the  knowledge  gained  by  flesh  and 
blood  and  a  revelation  of  divine  knowledge  from  heaven. 
This  striking  relationship  in  phraseology  between  St.  Paul's 
words  of  himself  and  our  Lord's  words  of  St.  Peter  has  been 
pointed  out  by  more  than  one  able  writer,"  although  we  may 
hesitate  to  press  it  too  closely,  as  such  expressions  as 
"  flesh  and  blood "  and  the  word  "  to  reveal "  were  in 
frequent  use  in  Jewish  religious  circles.'^ 

But  we  are,  it  would  seem,  on  firmer  ground  when  we 
remind  ourselves  how  in  one  brief  command  St.  Paul  sums 
up  "  the  law  of  Christ "  (Gal.  vi.  2),  and  we  see  in  that 
summary  how  clearly  the  Apostle  knew  the  mind  of  the 
Teacher  in  the  Gospels.  The  Pharisees  had  laden  men  with 
burdens  too  heavy  to  be  borne  ;  Christ  had  laid  upon  them 
a  light  burden,  the  love  which  could  endure  all  things  ;  and 
for  Thessalonians  and  Galatians  alike,  this  law  of  Christ  was 

'  See  the  very  suggestive  remarks  of  Dr.  T.  M.  Lindsay  in  the 
Hibbert  yournal,  October,  1902,  p.  167. 

-  See,  e.g.,  Feme,  u.s.  p.  62  ;  Nosgen,  u.s.  p.  ^2  ;  and  Rendall,  £x- 
^ositor's  G.T.,  iii.  p.  155. 

^  Cf.  Sturm,  U.S.  ii.  p.  21  ;  Cremer,  Worterbuch  der  N.G.,  p.  84. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  253 

the  law  of  a  kingdom,  the  inheritance  of  all  who  walked  in 
the  Spirit  worthily  of  the  God  who  called  them.  And  as 
in  His  earthly  ministry  our  Lord  had  taught  men  to 
see  in  the  kingdom  which  He  preached  the  kingdom  of 
the  Father,  so  this  revelation  of  the  kingdom  of  a  Father  is 
made  known  by  St.  Paul  to  wise  and  simple  alike.  Every 
Christian  can  cry,  "  Abba,  Father"  (Rom.  viii.  15  ;  Gal.  iv.  6), 
words  which  seem  from  the  first  days  of  the  Church  to  have 
passed  into  current  and  liturgical  use.^  And  if  we  ask  why, 
the  answer  surely  is  that  if  they  are  not  a  quotation  from 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  they  are  at  least  a  prayer  consecrated 
by  the  use  of  the  Lord  Himself 

Nor  is  it  at  all  improbable  that  there  is  in  the  words  a 
reference  to  the  first  clause  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Twice  in 
St.  Paul's  Epistles,  here  and  in  Rom.  viii.  15,  we  find  the 
same  expression,  Abba,  Father  ;  and  once  in  the  Gospels 
(Mark  xiv.  36),  where,  in  the  solemn  scene  of  His  Passion, 
our  Lord  prays,  Abba,  Father.  What  more  likely  than  that 
this  remarkable  invocation,  which  thus  appears  quite  in- 
dependently in  St.  Mark  and  in  St.  Paul,  should  point  to  a 
common  source  ?  And  if  the  Lord's  Prayer,  in  which  even 
Professor  Gardner  can  assure  us  that  we  have  the  most 
authentic  of  all  Christian  documents,^  was  in  current 
Christian  use,  nothing  was  more  likely  than  that  the  initial 
word  of  the  prayer  should  become  as  it  were  a  title  for  the 
prayer  itself,  just  as,  it  has  been  suggested,  we  use  the  words 
Pater-Noster  to  describe  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

But  such  a  summary  as  that  which  St.  Paul  gives  us  of 
the  "law  of  Christ,"  in  such  words  as  these,  in  Gal.  v.  14, 
"  The  whole  law  is  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this  :  Thou 

'  Wendt,  Die  Lehre  Jesu,  2nd  edit.  p.  176  ;  Feine,  ti.s.  p.  253 ; 
Seeberg,  Der  Katechisinus  der  Urchriste7iheit,  p.  240  (1903) ;  Sturm, 
U.S.  p.  13,  for  references.  See  also  Dr.  Moulton,  Ex;positor,  January, 
1904,  p.  71,  and  Dr.  Chase,  The  Lord's  Prayer  in  the  Early  Church, 
p.  24. 

^  Historic  View  of  the  N.T.,"^.  80. 


254    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,"  or,  in  Gal.  v.  2,  "  Behold, 
I,  Paul,  say  unto  you,  that  if  ye  receive  circumcision,  Christ 
will  profit  you  nothing,"  opens  out  not  only  the  question  of 
the  relation  of  St.  Paul  to  the  law,  but  of  the  relation  of 
Christ  to  the  law. 

Was  St.  Paul  in  the  position  which  he  assumed  towards 
Judaism  really  dependent  upon  the  historical  Christ  ?  It 
is  certainly  remarkable  that  although  the  Apostle  must 
so  often  have  come  into  conflict  with  like  opponents,  he 
has  not  precisely  referred  to  any  of  the  words  uttered  by 
Jesus  in  His  denunciation  of  the  Pharisees.  But  the  whole 
attitude  which  Paul  assumed,  and  the  confidence  with 
which  he  asserted  his  liberty,  and  yet  his  bondage  as 
"under  law  to  Christ"  (i  Cor.  ix.  21),  become  more  easily 
intelligible  if  the  Apostle  had  known  the  position  which 
Christ  Himself  had  taken  up  with  regard  to  the  law,  if  he 
knew  that  in  his  conflict  against  the  Judaisers,  against  those 
whom  he  regarded  as  false  brethren,  Jesus  was,  so  to  speak, 
on  his  side.^ 

But  if  love  was  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  if  in  Christ  Jesus 
neither  circumcision  availed  anything  nor  uncircumcision,  it 
followed  that,  without  expressly  cancelling  them,  those 
portions  of  the  Old  Testament  law  which  related  merely  to 
ceremonial  strictures  were  declared  to  be  without  further 
import,  and  that  St.  Paul  in  this  Galatian  Epistle  was  in 
reality  only  drawing  the  practical  consequences  which 
followed  from  the  teaching  of  his  Master.^  This  is  at  least 
one  answer  to  the  position  taken  up  by  Von  Soden  {u.s. 
p.  129),  viz.  that  St.  Paul,  even  when  he  does  show  acquaint- 
ance with  the  words  of  the  Lord,  does  so  not  in  relation  to 
any  of  the  great  cardinal  principles  of  the  Gospel,  but  only 
in  relation  to  questions  of  custom  or  ritual. 

And  so  again,  if  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  of  Christ  was 

'  Drcscher,  Das  Lebe?i  Jesu  bet  Paulus,  p.  21  (1900), 

'  Titius,  U.S.  pp.  14,  18  ;  Feine,  u.s.  pp.  247,  249;  Wendt,  u.s.  p.  22. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  255 

love,  then  it  followed  that  the  particularism  of  the  Jewish 
religion  was  done  away,  and  we  can  understand  that 
universalism,  i.e.  the  proclamation  of  the  truth  that  Jew 
and  Gentile  were  alike  under  law  to  Christ,  would  become 
the  dominant  thought  of  St.  Paul's  teaching.  For  the  law 
of  Christ  was  a  law  not  for  this  nation  or  for  that,  but 
for  human  nature  :  "  For  as  many  of  you  as  were  baptized 
into  Christ  did  put  on  Christ.  There  can  be  neither  Jew 
nor  Greek,  there  can  be  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  can 
be  no  male  or  female  ;  for  ye  all  are  one  man  in  Christ 
Jesus  "  (Gal.  iii.  28,  R.V.). 

"  As  many  as  were  baptized."  The  words  demand 
attention  from  another  point  of  view.  If  this  was  the 
general  condition  of  admission  into  the  Christian  Church, 
if  this  Sacrament  of  Baptism  was  common  to  and  accepted 
by  all  the  Christian  Churches,  not  only  for  those  which 
Paul  had  himself  founded,  but  also  for  those  which  he 
had  not  (cf  Rom.  vi.  3  ;  Col.  ii.  12),  it  is  difficult  to  credit 
that  Baptism  was  anything  else  than  an  institution  of 
Christ  Himself^  And  when  we  consider  St.  Paul's  whole 
attitude,  which  was  one  not  easily  prone  to  lay  stress  upon 
outward  signs  of  religion,  this  likelihood  is  further  increased. 
It  must  also  not  be  forgotten  that  the  manner  in  which 
the  Apostle  refers  to  Baptism  in  close  connection  with  the 
Lord's  Supper  (which  he  undoubtedly  referred  to  the  Lord) 
points  very  remarkably  to  the  same  conclusion  (cf  i  Cor. 
X.  2-4).^ 

Quite  apart  from  the  statements  in  the  early  chapters  of 
the  Acts  or  in  the  first  Epistle  of  St.  Peter,  and  quite  apart 
from  any  strengthening  of  the  case  which  these  passages 
of  Scripture  might  justly  afford,  such  a  statement  as 
Rom,    vi.    3    is    in    this    connection    of   special  importance, 

'  On  Pfleiderer's  very  fanciful  attempt  to  connect  the  phrase  "  putting 
on  Christ"  (Gal.  iii.  2"])  with  the  worship  of  Mithra,  see  Clemen, 
Die  religionsgeschichtliche  Methode  in  der  Theologie,  p.  2iZ- 

^  Riggenbach,  Der  Trinitarische  Taufbefehl,  p.  100  (1903). 


256    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

"  Or  are  ye  ignorant  that  all  we  who  were  baptized  into 
Christ  Jesus  were  baptized  into   His  death  ? " 

The  Apostle  is  writing  to  Churches  the  members  of 
which  were  for  the  most  part,  at  all  events,  unknown  to 
him  ;  but  he  has  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  deep  moral 
and  spiritual  significance  of  baptism  would  be  at  once 
recognised  by  all — nay,  that  all  were  already  aware 
of  it. 

If  it  is  said  that  the  Apostle  is  here  attaching  an 
allegorical  meaning  to  baptism,  then  this  would  be  in 
itself  a  proof  that  baptism  had  been  already  long  estab- 
lished as  a  custom  of  the  Churches,  for  we  do  not  draw 
out  the  spiritual  meaning  of  facts,  or  deduce  allegorical 
lessons  from  them,  unless  we  are  quite  sure  of  the  facts 
themselves. 

Attempts  have  indeed  been  made  to  derive  St.  Paul's 
conception  in  the  passage  just  quoted  either  from  some 
words  of  the  Lord  in  the  Gospels,  as,  e.g.,  "  The  cup  that 
I  drink  ye  shall  drink,  and  with  the  baptism  that  I  am 
baptized  withal  shall  ye  be  baptized  "  (Mark  x.  39 ;  Luke 
xii.  50),  or  to  refer  it  to  some  unrecorded  saying  of  Christ 
on  the  ground  of  a  passage  in  Apost.  Const.,  v.  7.  But  it 
is  much  more  probable  that  this  later  passage  may  be 
explained  as  dependent  on  Rom.  vi.  3,  or  on  some  current 
teaching  of  the  Church  to  which  St.  Paul  thus  draws 
attention   in  that  Epistle, 

Various  attempts,  we  know,  are  being  made  at  the 
present  time  to  connect  the  Christian  Sacraments  with 
divers  rites  and  mysteries  of  the  pagan  world.  But  it  is 
noteworthy  that  one  of  the  most  recent  of  German  writers 
on  the  Apostolic  Age  refuses  to  see  any  connection  with 
any  supposed  magical  efficacy  in  the  Christian  Sacrament 
of  Baptism,  and  that  he  rightly  lays  stress  upon  the  extra- 
ordinary moral  power  of  the  Christian  life  which  in  this 
passage  of  the  Romans  is  described  as  conferred  upon  those 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  257 

who  are  baptized.^  He  notes  especially,  e.g.,  Rom.  vi.  12  : 
"  Let  not  sin  therefore  reign  in  your  mortal  body,  lest  ye 
should  obey  the  lusts  thereof;  neither  present  your  members 
unto  sin  as  instruments  of  unrighteousness,  but  present 
yourselves  unto  God,  as  alive  from  the  dead,  and  your 
members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God." 

Possibly  St.  Paul  in  writing  to  the  Galatians  does  not 
enlarge  upon  the  institution  of  the  Sacrament  of  Baptism 
because  he  had  no  occasion  to  do  so.  Unlike  the  Lord's 
Supper  in  the  Corinthian  Church,  it  had  not  presented 
itself  to  the  Galatians,  so  far  as  we  know,  as  a  matter 
of  controversy  or  dispute. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  important  to  observe  that  St, 
Paul  finds  in  the  Old  Testament  figures  both  of  Baptism 
and  of  the  Eucharist,  and  that  this  reference  of  Old 
Testament  types  to  the  two  Sacraments  is  best  explained 
on  the  supposition  that  the  Apostle  regarded  both  as 
equally  derived   from   the   Lord  Jesus. 

But  however  this  may  be,  it  is  straining  language  quite 
beyond  its  legitimate  use  to  see  in  i  Cor.  i.  17  a  proof 
that  baptism  was  not  an  institution  of  Jesus  (Art.  "  Wash- 
ings," Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  5273)  :  "  For  Christ  sent  me  not 
to  baptize,  but  to  preach  the  Gospel."  The  words  might 
easily  mean  that  Christ  had  sent  others  to  baptize,  al- 
though not  so  definitely  the  Apostle.^  For  him  a  special 
mission  was  given  to  preach  the  good  tidings,  and  the 
words  properly  mean,  "  For  Christ  sent  me  not  to  baptize, 
but  sent  me  to  preach  the  Gospel."  In  this  same  chapter 
of  I  Corinthians,  St.  Paul  had  already  testified  to  his 
authority  to  baptize  by  his  mention  of  Crispus,  Gaius,  the 
household  of  Stephanas,  all  of  whom  had  been  received 
by   him    into   the  Church ;   and    it   is   remarkable   that    he 

>  Von  Dobschiitz,  Probleme  des  apostolischen  Zeitalters,  p.  ']i 
(1904). 

2  In  support  of  this  view  of  the  words  reference  may  be  made  to 
Drescher,  Das  Leben  Jesu  bet  Paulus,  p.  28  (1900). 

17 


258    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

places  the  crucifixion  of  the  Lord  and  Christian  baptism 
in  the  closest  connection  (i  Cor.  i.  13),  as  though  he  saw 
in  the  latter  what  it  has  so  well  been  called,  "  the  means 
and  seal  of  admission  to  all  the  benefits  of  Christ's 
Passion."  ^ 

But  a  further  question  connects  itself  with  the  baptism 
thus  definitely  mentioned  in  Galatians  for  the  first  time 
(iii.  27),  although  its  operation  is  fairly  presupposed  in 
I  Thess.  in  such  words  as  these,  "  For  God  called  us  not 
for  uncleanness,  but  in  sanctification  .  .  .  who  also  giveth 
His   Holy  Spirit  unto  you"  (i    Thess.   iv.   8). 

What  guarantee  did  St.  Paul  possess  that  he  was  right 
in  thus  admitting  both  Jew  and  Gentile,  bond  and  free, 
barbarian,  even  Scythian,  to  the  Church's  privileges  ?  Be- 
cause God  had  shown  His  recognition  of  the  gospel  which 
the  Apostle  had  preached  ;  and  so  St.  Paul  could  write  to 
the  Galatians,  "  For  He  that  wrought  for  Peter  unto  the 
apostleship  of  the  circumcision  wrought  for  me  also  unto 
the  Gentiles  "  ;  and  again,  "  He  therefore  that  supplieth  to 
you  the  Spirit,  and  worketh  miracles  among  you,  doeth  it 
by  the  works  of  the  law  or  by  the  hearing  of  faith." 

Here  are  two  passages  in  which  we  can  scarcely  doubt 
that  the  Apostle  refers  to  the  possession  and  to  the  working 
of  miraculous  powers.  The  verb  which  he  uses  in  both 
passages,  although  in  a  somewhat  different  construction  in 
each,  constantly  refers  to  the  exhibition  of  God's  power  in 
a  miraculous  manner.  Thus  in  the  Second  and  Third 
Books  of  the  Maccabees  it  appears  that  it  is  used  four  times 
of  a  miraculous  interposition  of  a  divine  power,  and  in  the 
New  Testament  this  use  is  characteristic  of  the  word.'  It 
is  employed  constantly  by  St.  Paul,  and  in  the  Gospels  of 
St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  it  is  used  in  close  connection 
with  miraculous  power  (Matt.  xiv.  2,  Mark  vi.  14  and  xvi.  20). 

'  Canon  Evans,  Speaker's  Commentary,  in  loco. 
?  Dean  of  Westminster,  Ephestafts,  pp.  241-7. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  259 

This  being  so,  it  is  very  natural  to  connect  the  passage  in 
Gal.  ii.  8  above  with  St.  Paul's  defence  of  his  Apostolic 
authority  elsewhere,  as,  ^.^.,  in  2  Cor.  xii.  12  ;  cf.  Rom.  xv.  8.^ 
No  doubt  the  word  Svvd[JL€L<;  in  Gal.  iii.  5  may  refer  to 
wonders  wrought  in  the  moral  as  well  as  in  the  physical 
world,  and  in  i  Cor.  xii.  6  the  God  who  "worketh  all  in 
all "  worked  by  a  variety  of  operations,  including  gifts  of 
prophecy,  as  well  as  gifts  of  healing  and  of  "  powers." 

But  this  latter  word  is,  as  we  have  seen,  used  both  by 
St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  of  miracles  in  connection  with 
the  same  verb  as  in  Gal.  iii.  5,  and  it  is  closely  connected 
in  I  Cor.  xii.  9  and  28-9  with  the  thought  of  gifts  of 
healing. 

Moreover,  on  the  S.  Galatian  theory  this  passage 
(Gal.  iii.  5)  becomes  full  of  significance,  since  it  may  thus 
be  connected,  as  Professor  Ramsay  connects  it,  with  the 
events  of  St.  Paul's  first  missionary  journey,  and  be  taken 
as  a  reference  to  them.  "  He  therefore  that  supplieth  to 
you  the  Spirit,  and  worketh  miracles  among  you  (or,  in 
you),  doeth  he  it  by  the  works  of  the  law  or  by  the  hearing 
of  faith  ?  "  "I  do  not  need,"  the  Apostle  seems  to  say,  "  to 
supply  the  answer "  (Ramsay,  Galatiaiis,  p.  327).  "  You 
yourselves  know  the  facts,  and  you  can  answer  the  question. 
You  remember  the  lame  man  at  Lystra  (Acts  xiv.  9),  who 
had  the  faith  of  salvation,  the  disciples  at  Antioch  filled  with 
joy  and  the   Holy  Spirit  (xiii.   52)  ;  the  signs  and  wonders 

'  The  words  in  Gal.  iv.  14  seem  to  intimate  that  St.  Paul  was 
received  with  another  sign  of  the  reception  due  to  an  Apostle.  "Ye 
received  me,"  he  writes,  "  as  an  angel  of  God."  It  is  a  striking  thought 
suggested  by  Ramsay  that  in  such  words  "  an  angel  "  or  "  messenger  of 
God,"  St.  Paul  may  have  been  reminding  the  Galatiansthat  some  of  them 
had  spoken  of  him  as  Hermes,  the  messenger  of  Zeus.  But  whilst  there 
may  be  a  reminiscence  of  the  events  at  Lystra  in  the  Apostle's  mind, 
we  can  scarcely  fail,  as  we  read  his  words,  to  recall  the  saying  of  our 
Lord  in  Matt.  x.  40;  and  in  this  connection  we  may  also  remember  that 
I  Thess.  iv.  8  reminded  us  of  similar  words  of  our  Lord  to  His  followers, 
as  reported  in  Luke  x.  16. 


26o    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

at    Iconium    (xiv.   3)    and   among  the   Gentiles   in   general 
(xv.    12)." 

Long  ago  Paley  emphasised  the  significance  of  this  claim 
to  miraculous  powers  which  St.  Paul  thus  makes,  and  it  will 
be  noticed  that  this  claim  is  found  in  three  of  the  Apostle's 
letters  which  we  cannot  possibly  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  him 
(Galatians  ;  2  Corinthians  ;   Romans). 

Moreover,  it  will  be  further  noted  that  in  2  Corinthians 
he  speaks  of  these  miracles  as  "  the  signs  of  an  Apostle  " 
(xii.  12),^  and  that  in  writing  to  the  Romans  he  distinctly 
describes  these  miracles  as  wrought,  not  by  his  own  power, 
but  by  Christ  (xv.  19).  Several  inferences  would  seem  to 
follow:  (i)  that  St.  Paul  must  have  regarded  our  Lord  as 
Himself  in  possession  of  the  miraculous  power  which  He 
thus  conferred  upon  others  ;  (2)  that  it  is  unreasonable  to 
expect  that  St.  Paul  should  give  us  detailed  accounts  of 
the  miracles  wrought  by  our  Lord  in  His  earthly  life  when 
that  same  miraculous  power  was  still  at  work  in  the  Church  ;  ^ 
(3)  that  it  is  incredible  that  St.  Paul  should  thus  play  into 
the  hands  of  his  opponents  by  laying  claim  to  a  power 
which  neither  he  nor  his  converts  possessed  ;  (4)  and  lastly, 
that  whilst  no  doubt  the  Apostle  lays  great  stress  upon 
"  spiritual  gifts,"    it   must    not    be   forgotten    that    amongst 

'  On  the  force  of  this  passage  and  of  Gal.  iii.  5,  Rom.  xv.  ig,  Dr. 
Plummer  rightly  dwells  (cf.  2  Cor.,  p.  208)  ;  so,  too,  Dr.  Sanday  in 
answer  to  what  he  truly  calls  the  one-sided  treatment  of  such  references 
by  Dr.  Percy  Gardner,  Journal  of  Theol.  Studies,  January,  1902,  p.  232. 
"  Let  the  reader,"  writes  Dr.  Sanday,  "  confront  these  pages  [i.e. 
pp.  221,  227  in  A  Historic  View  of  the  N.T.)  with  the  very  plain  and 
direct  language  of  2  Cor.  xii.  12,  Rom.  xv.  ig,  and  let  him  remember 
that   '  spiritual   gifts  '  included  ')(ap\.(y\iaTa  lafiarcou,  and  evepyrjixara  8vvdfjLf(0V 

(i  Cor.  xii.  g)."     See,  further,  Titius,  z^.s.  p.  14. 

*  In  commenting  on  a  similar  passage  in  Heb.  ii.  4,  "  God  also 
bearing  witness  with  them  both  by  signs  and  wonders  and  by  manifold 
powers,"  Bishop  Westcott  remarks,  "  the  passage  is  of  deep  interest, 
as  showing  the  unquestioned  reality  of  miraculous  gifts  in  the  early 
Church."  In  the  same  manner  from  the  Epistle  of  St.  James  (v.  14-15), 
we  learn  that  it  is  Christ  who  would  raise  the  sick,  and  that  Christ  is 
the  living  source  of  the  Church's  supernatural  power. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  261 

these   same   gifts   we   find    "  gifts   of    healings,   workings   of 
miracles  "  (i    Cor.  xii.  9). 

I  do  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  in  the  latest  phase  of 
the  attack  upon  the  miraculous  in  the  New  Testament  we  are 
encouraged  to  believe  that  "  the  historic  Jesus  "  was  able  to 
perform  miracles  of  healing  disease,  and  that  it  is  granted 
that  He  was  able  to  accomplish  what  we  should  call 
nowadays  faith-healing.  But  by  what  right  do  we  confine 
our  Lord's  miracles,  or  those  of  His  Apostles,  to  these 
so-called  "  faith-healings  "  ? 

If  we  consider  for  the  moment  only  the  miracles  of 
St.  Paul,  we  must  remember  that  at  least  one  of  them, 
recorded  at  some  length  in  one  of  the  "  We  "-sections,  the 
raising  of  Eutychus  from  the  dead,  scarcely  falls  under  the 
head  of  faith-healing.  St.  Luke's  statement  in  the  case  in 
question  is  quite  positive :  "  He  was  taken  up  dead  "  (Acts  xx.  9). 
We  do  not  read,  as  in  the  case  of  the  demoniac  boy,  that  "  he 
became  as  one  dead  "  (Mark  ix.  26).  And  the  statement 
is  all  the  more  important  when  we  remember  that  St.  Luke 
claims  to  have  been  an  eyewitness  of  the  whole  scene. 

But  we  are  now  asked,  in  the  case  of  St.  Paul,  as  in  that 
of  our  Lord,  to  accept  the  theory  that  the  miracles  of  healing 
are  due  to  the  magnetic  personality  of  the  Apostle.  What- 
ever else  may  be  thought  of  such  a  theory,  it  is  at  any  rate 
not  new  ;  some  such  explanation  was  favoured  long  ago  by 
David  Strauss  in  the  second  edition  of  his  Life  of  fesus. 
But  when  all  is  said  that  can  be  said  in  explanation  of  the 
power  of  healing  diseases,  there  must  remain  what  Dr. 
Harnack  himself  called  stories  of  which  we  cannot  fathom 
the  secret,  and  reports  of  miracles  which  cannot  be  explained 
away  by  naturalistic  solutions.^ 

There  is  one  other  passage  in  this  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 

^  Harnack's  Wesen  des^Christetitiims  fiiT  die  Christliche  Gemeijide 
ge;pruft,  by  W.  Walther,  p.  48  (1904).  A  Reply  to  Harnack^  by 
H.  Cremer,  E.T.,  p.  198  (1903).  The  Finger  of  God,  by  T.  H.  Wright, 
p.  194(1903). 


262    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

which  is  closely  connected  with  a  subject  which  is  receiving 
much  notice  :  "  When  the  fulness  of  the  time  came,  God 
sent  forth  His  Son,  born  of  a  woman,  born  under  the  law  " 
(Gal.  iv.  4).  Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the 
bearing  of  such  words  upon  our  Lord's  pre-existence.  But 
we  may  further  note  that  this  conception  of  "  the  fulness 
of  the  time  "  was  a  favourite  one  with  St.  Paul  both  in  his 
earlier  and  later  Epistles  (cf.  Eph.  i.  10  ;  i  Tim.  ii.  6).  In 
relation  to  the  Advent,  we  remember  that  the  first  words  of 
our  Saviour's  preaching  narrated  by  St.  Mark  are  these  : 
"The  time  is  fulfilled"  (Mark  i.  15);  and  it  is  begging  the 
whole  question  of  the  relation  of  the  Epistles  to  the  Gospels 
to  affirm  that  St.  Mark's  words,  which  he  attributes  to  our 
Lord,  were  an  imitation  of  Pauline  phraseology.  At  least 
we  should  remember  that  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  St.  Mark  and  St.  Paul  were  long  enough  in  each  other's 
company  for  the  latter  to  have  learnt  something  from 
St.  Peter's  interpreter  of  the  words  and  contents  of  our 
Lord's  preaching. 

But  the  expression  "  born  of  a  woman  "  also  demands  the 
most  careful  attention.  Has  it  any  close  bearing  upon 
the  subject  of  our  Lord's  Virgin  birth  ?  It  is  difficult  to 
say  ;  but  at  least  two  considerations  with  regard  to  St.  Paul's 
words  should  be  carefully  weighed.  The  one  is  that  many 
distinguished  critics  do  regard  the  words  as  asserting 
St.  Paul's  belief  in  our  Lord's  birth  of  a  Virgin  Mother.^ 
And  the  other  is  the  peculiar  phraseology  of  the  words 
themselves.  It  is  often  said  that  in  St.  Paul's  language  we 
need  find  nothing  else  but  a  reference  to  a  common  Jewish 
phrase,  "  man  that  is  born  of  a  woman  "  (Job  xiv.  i),  or  again, 

'  The  Rev.  W.  C.  Allen,  although  allowing  that  this  interpretation 
of  the  words  must  remain  open,  seems  to  attach  more  weight  to 
St.  Paul's  words  in  i  Tim.  ii.  15,  "The  Birth  of  Christ  in  the  N.T.," 
Interpreter,  p.  123,  February,  1905.  It  is  noticeable  that  in  the  R.V. 
the  article  is  found,  "She  shall  be  saved  hy  the  child-bearing"  (cf. 
Church  Quarterly  Review,  January,  1893,  p.  483). 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  263 

"amongst  those  born  of  women"  (Matt.  xi.  11).  But  it  is 
important  to  note  that  in  the  original  language  St.  Paul 
says,  not  "  born  of  a  woman,"  but  "  made  of  a  woman,"  and 
that  he  uses  a  different  verb  from  that  which  is  always  used 
elsewhere  to  express  "  naturally  born  of  a  woman." 

This  distinction  has  been  well  emphasised  by  a  distin- 
guished modern  scholar,  the  present  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
and  it  at  least  helps  us  to  see  that  St.  Paul's  language  must 
not  be  dismissed  as  colourless  in  this  connection.^ 

We  must,  of  course,  remember  that  the  probabilities  that 
St.  Paul  was  acquainted  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Virgin 
birth  by  no  means  depend  upon  this  one  disputed  passage, 
and  we  are  quite  justified  in  referring  to  the  Apostle's 
conception  of  our  Lord  as  the  new  Man,  the  second  Adam, 
as  demanding  a  perfectly  unique  manner  of  birth  for  Him 
who  was  thus  the  beginning  of  a  new  humanity.^  Nor 
should  it  ever  be  forgotten  that  we  owe  to  St.  Paul's 
constant  companion  the  fullest  account  of  our  Lord's  birth, 
an  account  the  truthfulness  of  which  no  modern  criticism 
has  discredited  ;  and  it  would  be  strange,  to  say  the  least  of 
it,  if  this  account,  so  well  known  to  St.  Luke,  was  unknown 
to  St.  Paul. 

But  in  this  same  verse  in  Galatians  there  is  another 
significant  phrase,  "  made  under  the  law." 

It  has,  indeed,  been  rightly  maintained  that  the  words 
might  mean  "  made  under  law,"  i.e.  under  law  in  general, 
intimating  that  our  Lord  became  man,  and  that,  like  other 
men,   whether   Jews   or  Gentiles,   He  became   subject    to   a 

'  The  Baptismal  Confession  and  the  Creed  (S.P.C.K.),  p.  18  (1904). 
St.  Paul  says,  "made  of  a  woman"  {yevofieuov  e/c  ywaiKos),  but 
"  naturally  born  of  a  woman  "  would  rather  be  expressed  by  yevvrjBepra 
eK  yvvaiKos-  In  Job  we  have  four  or  five  times  in  the  LXX  the  phrase, 
"born  of  a  woman";  and  in  each  case  we  have  yewrjTos  ywaiKos 
(cf.  Matt.  xi.  II,  Luke  vii.  28,  evyevvr^Toi^yvvaiKoav).  In  all  these  we  have 
a  cognate  of  the  same  verb,  yewaw  ;  but  not  St.  Paul's  verb,  yiuofiat. 

^  See,  amongst  recent  writers,  Resch,  Der  Paulinismus  und  die 
Logia  Jesu,  p.  620  (1904). 


264    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

legal  dispensation.  But  even  those  who  press  this  meaning 
admit  that  the  words  refer  primarily,  at  all  events,  to  the 
Jewish  law.  And  if  this  is  so,  the  phrase,  let  us  remember, 
carries  with  it  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  our 
Lord's  circumcision,  of  His  presentation  in  the  Temple,^  of 
His  becoming  "  a  son  of  the  law,"  and  possibly  of  His 
coming  forward  as  a  teacher  at  the  requisite  age  of  thirty 
years. 

As  we  look  back  upon  this  short  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 
we  may  thus  fairly  conclude  that,  like  i  and  2  Thessalonians, 
it  presupposes  no  inconsiderable  knowledge  of  the  life  and 
teaching  and  claims  of  our  Lord.  We  have  before  us  in 
the  scope  of  one  short  letter  not  only  what  has  well  been 
termed  the  "  Pauline  Gospel  of  the  Infancy,"  but  also  the 
Pauline  Gospel  of  the  Cross  and  the  Resurrection,  a  Gospel 
in  which  the  Apostle  finds  the  hope  and  the  pledge  of 
redemption  for  all  "  under  law,"  i.e.  for  the  Jew  first,  and 
also  for  the  Gentile. 

Once  more  let  us  note  that  this  pledge  of  redemption  was 
given  in  "  the  fulness  of  time."  ^  No  phrase  was  more 
calculated  to  go  home  to  the  mind  of  a  man  like  St.  Paul. 
Politically,  religiously,  socially,  the  world  was  longing  for 
a  Redeemer,  and  with  the  fulness  of  time  there  came  the 
Christ. 

It  has,  indeed,  been  recently  said  by  a  distinguished 
writer,  Goldwin  Smith,  that  the  Messianic  hope  is  a  Jewish 
dream,  the  creation  of  national  vanity,  and  without  interest 
or  importance  to  the  modern  mind.  One  would  have 
thought  that  this  hope,  transformed  and  spiritualised  by  the 
Christ    Himself   and   by    His    greatest  Apostle,    this    hope 

'  On  the  absence  of  any  contradiction  between  St.  Luke's  statements 
and  the  requirements  of  the  law,  see  A  Short  Introduction  to  the 
Gospels  (Chicago),  by  Professor  E,  Burton,  p.  74  ff  (1904). 

*  Jeremias,  Babylonisches  im  N.T.,  p.  48  (1905),  duly  emphasises 
the  importance  of  this  phrase  as  showing  that  Christianity  gives  in 
substance  what  other  religions  had  only  given  beforetime  in  a  shadow. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   GALATIANS  265 

which  conquered  "  the  old  pagan  world,  on  which  disgust 
and  sated  loathing  fell,"  would  have  commanded  a  more 
appreciative  and  a  truer  treatment. 

St.  Paul  was  a  Roman  citizen  proud  of  his  name  and 
privilege  ;  but  there  passed  before  his  eyes  the  vision  of  an 
empire  greater  and  wider  than  that  of  Rome,  an  empire  in 
which  another  King,  "  one  Jesus,"  ruled,  the  Jesus  which  was 
"  the  Christ." 

St.  Paul  in  his  Tarsian  home  had  known  something  of 
the  teaching  of  the  Stoics,  of  their  dreams  of  human  brother- 
hood, of  their  lofty  theories  of  human  nature  ;  but  St.  Paul 
had  seen  in  the  Christ  the  Man  in  whom  the  bondman  and 
the  free,  the  Greek  and  the  barbarian,  were  one  ;  it  is  the 
thought  which  finds  expression  for  the  first  time  amongst 
the  Apostle's  letters  in  this  Epistle  to  the  Galatians, 

St.  Paul  was  a  Jew,  and  he  had  felt  in  his  inmost  soul 
something  of  the  holiness  and  righteousness  of  Jehovah  ;  but 
he  had  learned  to  see  in  the  Christ  the  Righteous  One,  the 
sinless  Son  of  God,  the  King  in  His  moral  perfection  and 
beauty.  To-day  we  are  again  face  to  face  with  imperial, 
social,  religious  problems  ;  and  how  can  we  meet  them 
more  confidently  than  in  that  same  conviction,  which 
deepened  with  St.  Paul's  own  spiritual  growth  and  know- 
ledge, that  "  Christ  is  all  and  in  all "  (Col.  iii.  11;  cf 
Gal.  iii.  28),  a  conviction  which  found  its  loftiest  expression 
in  the  later  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  that  God  was  working 
out  His  purpose  through  the  ages,  to  sum  up  all  things 
and  all  persons  in   the  Christ  ? 


^ 


LECTURE   XIII 
EPISTLES    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS 

THE  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians  afford  us  some  rich 
illustrations  as  to  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of  the  life 
and  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  poverty,  e.g.,  which  marked 
our  Lord's  entrance  into  the  world,  so  different  in  its  sur- 
roundings from  Jewish  expectations  and  so  unacceptable, 
therefore,  except  on  the  supposition  of  its  truth — the  poverty 
which  marked  the  whole  of  His  earthly  career — is  signifi- 
cantly referred  to,  as  Baur  long  ago  admitted,  in  St.  Paul's 
words,  "  Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that 
though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  He  became  poor  " 
(2  Cor.  viii.  9).  Such  words  are  of  course  valuable,  as  we 
have  seen,  from  another  point  of  view,  inasmuch  as  they  bear 
the  strongest  testimony  to  our  Lord's  pre-existence,  and 
to  that  pre-existence  as  personal  and  not  merely  ideal. 

Attempts  have  sometimes  been  made  to  lessen  the  force 
of  this  reference  to  our  Lord's  poverty  on  the  ground  that 
as  spiritual  riches,  and  not  material,  are  evidently  in  the 
writer's  mind,  so  the  literal  poverty  ought  not  to  be  pressed, 
as  the  words  simply  emphasise  the  renunciation  by  our  Lord 
of  His  heavenly  riches  in  becoming  man. 

But  still  it  may  be  fairly  urged  that  a  reference  to  our 
Lord's  actual  poverty  would  be  of  force  here  in  a  passage 
in  which  the  Apostle  was  seeking  to  stimulate  his  Corinthian 
converts  to  some  gift  of  love  for  the  poorer  brethren,  and 
that   such   a   reference  would  be  quite  in  harmony  with  the 

266 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS         267 

incidental  notices  of  the  Gospels/  notices  further  borne  out 
by  the  striking  statement  of  Eusebius  that  the  last  members 
of  the  family  of  Jesus  of  whom  we  have  any  knowledge, 
when  summoned  before  Domitian,  appeared  as  poor  men,  as 
horny-handed  rustics.^ 

But  there  are  other  references  which  St.  Paul  makes  in 
these  letters  to  our  Lord's  earthly  life,  references  very  signifi- 
cant, because  they  are  introduced  so  incidentally,  and  because 
they  suggest  the  inference  that  the  Apostle  who  knew  so 
much  must  also  have  known  more.  This  is  a  thought  which 
seems  constantly  to  suggest  itself  as  we  read  these  Corinthian 
Epistles. 

Thus  St.  Paul  is  able  to  refer  to  our  Lord's  brethren,  and 
apparently  to  one  amongst  them  by  name  (i  Cor.  ix.  5).  He 
knew  that  our  Lord  had  chosen  a  circle  of  twelve  intimate 
friends,  and  he  refers  to  them  by  the  name  of  "  the  Twelve," 
as  evidently  an  official  title,  since  the  number  was  not  pre- 
cisely exact  at  the  time  to  which  the  Apostle  alludes  (i  Cor. 
XV.  5).  He  mentions  to  the  Galatians  two  amongst  them, 
Peter  and  John,  in  a  manner  which  singles  them  out  as  of 
special  importance  (Gal.  ii.  8) ;  and  he  speaks  to  the 
Corinthians  of  Peter,  and  of  the  Apostles  and  brethren 
of  the  Lord,  as  married  men  (i  Cor.  ix.  5).  He  knows, 
moreover,  as  we  saw  in   the   last   lecture,  "  the  signs  of  the 

>  Cf.  Drescher,  u.s.  pp.  23-4;  Peine,  u.s.  p.  295,  referring  to  Matt. 
viii.  20;  Sturm,  u.s.  i.  ii  ;  Nosgen,  u.s.  p.  59  ;  Heinrici,  Der  Zweite 
Brief  a?i  die  Korinther ,  p.  276,  in  opposition  to  the  view  of  Schmiedel 
that  Paul  knew  nothing  of  the  circumstances  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  In 
other  recent  writers,  as,  e.g.,  O.  Holtzmann,  it  is  allowed  that  there  may 
be  a  reference  to  our  Lord's  earthly  poverty,  and  Weinel,  Paulus, 
p.  247  (1904)  is  fully  of  the  same  opinion. 

-  Eusebius,  H.E.,  iii.  19-20.  Dr.  B.  Weiss,  Life  of  Christ,  i.  215, 
E.T.,  remarks  that  the  emperor  was  reassured  by  their  statements  con- 
cerning the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  still  more  by  their  poverty-stricken 
look ;  and  he  adds  that  the  passage  is  interesting  because  the  last 
members  of  the  family  of  Jesus  with  whom  we  become  acquainted 
appear  as  needy,  horny-handed  rustics,  and  thus  confirm  the  statement 
that  the  family  was  without  possessions. 


268    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Apostle,"  in  the  power  of  working  miracles  conferred  upon 
him  (2  Cor.  xii.  12) ;  he  knows,  too,  that  our  Lord  had  ordained 
that  they  which  proclaim  the  Gospel  should  live  of  the 
Gospel  (i  Cor.  ix.  14),  in  words  which  may  fairly  be  regarded 
as  a  direct  reference  to  our  Lord's  charge  to  His  Apostles 
(Luke  X.  7) ;  ^  he  seems  to  have  in  mind  our  Lord's  positive 
ordinance  when  he  speaks  in  this  same  chapter  of  his  right 
(igovcTLa)  and  that  of  his  fellow  Apostles  to  eat  and  to  drink, 
to  reap  the  carnal  things  of  their  converts  (i  Cor.  ix.  4,  ii). 
"  Have  we  not  a  right  to  eat  and  drink  ?  "  he  asks,  using  the 
same  word  for  right  or  power  which  our  Lord  had  used  in 
charging  His  disciples,  and  perhaps  recalling  our  Lord's  own 
words  :  "  And  in  that  same  house  remain,  eating  and  drinking 
such  things  as  they  give,"  which  precede  the  clause,  "  For 
the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire  "  (/.^.)." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  that  St.  Paul 
also  employs  the  same  figurative  language  as  our  Lord  had 
employed  of  the  work  of  the  Gospel,  e.g.  to  plant  a  vineyard, 
to  feed  a  flock,  to  sow,  to  plough,  to  reap,^  although  such 
figures  may  be  thought  too  general  to  prove  any  positive 
reminiscence  of  our  Lord's  words. 

But  over  and  above  this  knowledge  of  our  Lord's 
home  and  public  life,  there  is  a  higher  knowledge,  that  of 
the  character  of  Jesus  and  of  the  impression  which  that 
character   had    made   upon    men.      It    is   not    only  that   the 

'  This  is  admitted  by  those  who  allow  but  few  references  to  our  Lord's 
words  in  St.  Paul's  writings,  e.g:  Schmiedel,  Der  Zweite  Brief  an  die 
Korinther,  p.  261,  2nd  edit.  ;  Wernle,  Die  Qicellen  des  Lebens  Jesu, 
p.  5  ;  so,  too,  Wendt,  u.s.  p.  60. 

-  So,  too,  it  is  quite  possible  to  find  a  reminiscence  of  Matt.  xii.  5-6  in 
the  preceding  words  (i  Cor.  ix.  13).  Feine,  u.s.  p.  289,  is  probably 
right  in  thinking  that  in  i  Cor.  x.  2"],  compared  with  Luke  x.  8,  "  What- 
ever is  set  before  you,  eat,"  and  "Eat  such  things  as  are  set  before  you," 
we  have  an  accidental  recurrence  of  the  same  phraseology,  as  napariOivai 
is  a  very  customary  expression  for  setting  food  before  people,  and  St. 
Luke  and  St.  Paul  are  referring  to  very  diverse  matters. 

^  Sabatier,  U Apdtre  Paul,  3rd  edit.,  p.  69;  Sturm,  u.s.  ii.  16; 
Titius,  U.S.  p.  16. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  269 

Apostle  refers  to  this  virtue  or  to  that  as  characteristic  of 
our  Lord,  but  that  he  sets  Him  before  us  as  an  example  of 
perfection.  The  Christ  had  appeared  in  the  likeness  of  the 
flesh  of  sin,  so  the  Apostle  tells  the  Romans  (Rom.  viii.  3)  ; 
but  by  Him  the  power  of  sin  had  been  broken,  and  sin  had 
been  condemned  in  the  flesh,  and  thus  this  passage  would 
silently  intimate  that  He  who  had  thus  overcome  sin  had  been 
Himself  free  from  sin.  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  to  read, 
as  in  2  Cor.  v.  21,  that  God  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who 
knew  no  sin.^  It  may  be  at  once  admitted  that  in  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  pictures  of  the  Messianic  kingdom  in 
Jewish  literature,  in  the  Psalms  of  Solomon,  which  carry  us 
back  to  a  date  within  half  a  century  or  so  of  our  Lord's 
Advent,  the  Messiah  is  represented  as  pure  from  sin  and  as 
reigning  in  a  sinless  kingdom  (Ps.  xvii.  'i^6,  41). 

But  it  is  quite  impossible  that  the  picture  of  the  sinless 
Messiah  in  the  Psalms  of  Solomon  could  have  created  the 
picture  of  the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels.  A  large  portion  of  the 
description  in  the  Psalms  •  f  Solomon  relates  to  an  earthly 
kingdom  ;  the  Messiah  will  overthrow  the  Gentiles,  Jerusalem 
is  to  be  the  capital  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  glory  of  the 
Temple  worship  will  be  restored.  The  kings  of  other  nations 
were  to  come  to  see  the   Messiah's  glory,  the   Gentiles  were 

'  Both  Wendt  and  Drescher,  no  less  than  Nosgen  and  Feine,  remark 
upon  the  significant  language  employed  in  Rom.  viii.  3  ;  and  O.  Holtz- 
mann  seems  unable  to  get  rid  of  the  testimony  to  our  Lord's  sinless  life 
in  2  Cor.  v.  21  ;   Rom.  v.  19. 

Drescher  argues  with  much  force  {ii-.s.  p.  25)  that  if  it  is  said  in  Rom. 
viii.  3  that  God  in  the  person  of  Christ  had  broken  the  power  of  sin,  it 
is  tacitly  presupposed  that  Christ  was  without  sin,  and  that  if  Paul 
further  represents  the  death  of  Christ  from  the  point  of  view  of  an 
offering,  it  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  he  did  not  maintain  the  faultless- 
ness  of  the  sacrificial  victim.  For  the  views  of  earlier  writers,  and  their 
testimony  to  our  Lord's  sinlessness,  the  present  writer  would  refer  to  the 
Witness  of  the  E;pistles,  p.  299. 

Resch,  Der  Paulinismus  und  die  Logia  fesu,  p.  160  (1904),  would 
connect,  with  Thenius,  some  of  St.  Paul's  statements  definitely  with  our 
Lord's  temptation  as  recorded  in  the  Gospels;  but  he  is  obliged  to  lay 
stress  chiefly  upon  Heb.  ii.  18,  iv.  15. 


270     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

to  be  His  subjects  and  should  serve  beneath  His  yoke.  No 
doubt  the  Messiah's  rule  is  to  be  restorative,  not  only 
destructive.  He  was  to  be  mighty  through  the  spirit  of  holi- 
ness, and  iniquity  and  wickedness  were  to  be  unknown. 

Indeed,  it  is  even  possible  to  see  in  some  of  the  words  of 
this  Psalm  an  anticipation  of  the  words  of  the  angels'  song, 
as  they  tell  us  of  the  birth  of  a  Saviour  who  is  Christ  the 
Lord.  But  if  so,  all  the  more  remarkable  becomes  the  contrast 
between  the  picture  of  the  Messiah  in  the  Gospels  with  His 
lowly  life,  His  poverty,  His  shameful  death,  and  the  picture 
of  the  Messiah  in  the  Psalms  of  Solomon  with  His  earthly 
kingdom  and  its  far-reaching  sovereignty,  without  a  single 
hint  of  suffering  or  shame  or  loss. 

Surely,  in  face  of  such  a  picture  as  that  of  these  Psalms, 
representing  current  Jewish  views  at  the  time  when  the 
Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  nothing  is  more 
astonishing  than  that  men  who  were  Jews,  men  like  St.  Paul, 
St.  Peter,  St.  John,  should  all  regard  and  reverence  the  lowly 
Nazarene  not  only  as  the  Messiah,  but  as  "  pure  from  sin," 
although  He  died  a  death  of  which  it  was  written  in  the 
Jewish  law,  "  cursed  is  every  one  that  hangeth  on  a  tree." 
Where  could  we  find  a  more  remarkable  testimony  to  the 
marvellous  impression  which  our  Lord  had  made  upon  those 
who  knew  Him  best,  and  upon  men  to  whom  as  Jews  the 
idea  of  a  sinless  man  was  quite  unknown  ?  ^  Moreover,  this 
testimony  to  the  holiness  and  sinlessness  of  Jesus  comes  to 
us  not  only,  as  Feine  expresses  it,  from  the  theologians  Paul 
and  John,^  but  from  the  whole  collective  Apostolic  Church. 
Whatever  men  may  presume  to  say  of  our   Lord's   miracles, 

'  Sturm,  U.S.  ii.  6,  and  Dean  Bernard's  note  on  2  Cor.  v.  21  in  the 
Expositor's  Greek  Testament. 

2  Feine,  Das  Christentum  Jesu  und  das  Christentum  der  Apostel, 
p.  56(1902).  Feine  notes  the  following  passages:  Acts  iii.  14,  iv.  27, 
vii.  52;  2  Cor.  V.  21  ;  Rom.  i.  4,  v.  18,  viii.  3  ;  Phil.  ii.  8;  i  Pet.  ii. 
22  ;  Heb.  iv.  15,  vii.  26,  ix.  14;  John  viii.  46  ;  i  John  iii.  5.  Moreover, 
the  power  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  which  was  in  itself  a  divine  act,  the 
whole  Apostolic  Church  derived  from  Jesus. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE     CORINTHIANS  271 

one  thing  can  scarcely  be  disputed,  viz.  that  it  was   part  of 
the  primitive  Gospel  that  He  was  Himself  a  moral  miracle. 

Moreover,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this  conception  of 
a  Messiah  "  free  from  sin "  is  not  found  at  all  in  post- 
Christian  Jewish  theology  ;  nowhere  is  it  inti  mated  that  the 
Messiah  is  sinless  ;  on  the  contrary,  He  sins  and  atones  for 
His  sins,  and  through  toil  and  suffering  becomes  wholly 
righteous/ 

It  is  also  noteworthy  that  the  same  group  of  Epistles  in 
which  this  remarkable  and  positive  statement  of  our  Lord's 
sinlessness  is  made  is  also  full  of  notices  which  reveal  to  us 
how  fully  St.  Paul  must  have  been  acquainted  with  our 
Lord's  human  character.  These  notices  may  sometimes  no 
doubt  refer  to  the  exalted  Christ  and  sometimes  to  the 
earthly  Christ  ;  but  they  are  at  all  events  sufficiently 
numerous  to  give  us  a  clear  view  of  Jesus  as  He  lived 
amongst  men,  and  they  are  also  in  close  accordance  with 
that  picture  of  Jesus  which  we  derive  from  our  Gospels. 

Of  the  love  of  Christ,  of  His  perfect  obedience,  of  His 
meekness  and  gentleness,  His  self-sacrifice  and  unselfish- 
ness, St.  Paul  plainly  speaks  ;  and  these  characteristics,  to 
which  the  Apostle  thus  refers  in  this  one  group  of  Epistles, 
to  say  nothing  of  others,  are  in  striking  similarity  with 
the  points  of  our  Lord's  character  which  meet  us  in  the 
Gospels."  If  indeed  our  Lord  was  sinless,  then  there  could 
have  been  no  separation  between  the  character  which  He 
portrayed  and  the  realisation  of  the  highest  moral  ideal. 

Moreover,  in  many  quite  incidental  notices  we  see  how 
much  St.  Paul  must  have  known  of  the  character  of  Christ. 
He  writes,  e.g.,  to  the  Corinthians  (i  Cor.  x.  32,  xi.  i),  and 
exhorts  them,  "  Give  no  occasion  of  stumbling  either  to  Jews 
or  to  Greeks  or  to  the  Church  of  God  ;  even  as  I  also  please  all 

*  Weber,  yUdische  Theologie,  p.  259  (1897)  ;  and  Sturm,  u.s.  ii.  6. 

^  See  the  valuable  remarks  of  Drescher,  Das  Leben  Jesu  bei  Paulus, 
pp.  24,  26 ;  P.  W.  Schmidt,  Geschichte  Jesic,  ii.  66 ;  H,  Holtzmann, 
Protestantische  Monatshefte,  p.  464  (1900). 


272     TESTIMONY    OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

men  in  all  things,  not  seeking  mine  own  profit,  but  the  profit  of 

the  many  that  they  may  be  saved."      And  then  he  adds  the 

significant  words,  "  Be  ye  imitators  of  me,  as  I   also  am  of 

Christ."      But  what  is  the  inference  ?      Surely  that  the  life 

of  Christ,  which  the  Apostle  bids  the  Corinthians  imitate  in 

him    had    been    itself    void    of   offence    towards    God    and 

man,  and   full  of  the  spirit   of  a    love    seeking   the  highest 

good  and  salvation  of  others. 

As  we  look  back  upon  the  picture  drawn  by   St.   Paul  of 

our  Lord's  character  ;  as  we  think  of  the  grace,  the  beauty  of 

Him  who  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  it  is  not  surprising  to 

find    that    St.   Paul    should   present  this  same  Jesus   to   the 

Corinthians  and  to  the  Romans  as  the  second   Adam,  the 

head  and  type  of  a  new  humanity.      It  has  been  said  that 

the   conception    of   an    ideal    man    was    foreign    to    Jewish 

thought  ;  but  however  this  may  be,  St.  Paul  sees  in   Christ 

the  sinless  man,  in  contrast  to  the  man  who  had  fallen  by 

sin,   the  bringer  in  of  a  new  life  in   contrast   to   him  who 

brought  death  and  all  our  woe. 

It  is  customary  to  allege  that  in  such  language  St.  Paul  is 

really  using  phrases  which  correspond   very  closely  to  the 

title  which  our  Lord  so  often  used  of  Himself,  and  which  is 

found  in  each  of  the  Evangelists,  "  the  Son  of  Man."      And 

even  if  we  cannot  positively  affirm   that  St.    Paul's  words 

show  his  acquaintance  with   the  title,  it  would    seem  very 

bold  to  assert  that  they  did  not.^ 

But  it  is   interesting   to  observe  that  Dr.    Dalman,    who 

'  Peine,  u.s.  p.  210,  strongly  maintains  that  St.  Paul  appears  to  know 
the  title  and  to  have  it  in  mind,  although  he  does  not  utter  it,  as,  e.g., 
in  relation  to  i  Cor.  xv.  26.  It  is  urged  also  by  Schmiedel  that  the  use 
of  Ps.  viii.  in  i  Cor.  xv.  27  (cf.  Heb.  ii.  5)  presupposes  this  acquaint- 
ance with  the  title  by  Paul  and  other  Apostles.  Cf.  Peine,  I.e.,  and  Dr. 
Driver,  "  Son  of  Man."  Hastings,  B.D.,  iv.  582  ;  and,  to  the  same  effect, 
Muirhead,  Eschatology  of  Jesus,  p.  168.  It  is,  of  course,  possible  that 
in  addition  to  the  more  probable  reason  given  above,  the  New  Testament 
Epistles  avoided  the  use  of  the  title,  because  it  was  so  likely  to  be  taken 
quite  literally,  and  to  be  misunderstood  by  their  Gentile  readers,  who 
would  think  that  the  person  so  styled  was  the  son  of  some  particular  man. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE  CORINTHIANS         273 

thinks  it  quite  unnecessary  to  find  any  reference  to  this 
self-designation  of  Jesus  in  St.  Paul's  words  in  i  Cor.  xv, 
45,  47,  also  sees  in  St.  Paul's  language  a  remarkable 
depth  of  meaning.  "It  is  occasioned,"  he  thinks,  "  by  the 
contrast  which  substantially  determines  the  entire  passage, 
instituted  between  the  earthly  nature  represented  in  Adam 
and  his  posterity,  and  the  heavenly  nature  bequeathed  by 
Christ  to  those  that  are  His."  Moreover,  he  distinctly  denies 
that  the  title,  "  the  last  Adam,"  or  "  the  second  man  "  can  in 
any  way  have  been  derived  from  Jewish  theology,  and  he 
speaks  of  it  as  probably  used  by  St.  Paul  in  i  Cor.  xv.  45  for 
the  first  time.^  The  same  writer,  it  may  be  added,  points  out 
that  probably  the  same  feeling  which  to-day  prevents  us  from 
naming  and  invoking  Jesus  as  the  "  Son  of  Man  "  may  well 
have  been  active  from  the  beginning.  The  Church  saw  in 
the  title  (whatever  else  it  may  have  been)  a  testimony  to  the 
reality  of  our  Lord's  human  nature  ;  but  they  refused  to  give 
currency  to  the  title,  since  the  "  Son  of  Man,"  as  St.  Paul 
teaches  in  his  earliest  Epistles,  was  set  upon  the  throne  of 
God,  a  Ruler  over  heaven  and  earth  :  "  He  is  Lord  of  all." 

But,  further,  when  we  consider  what  a  stumbling-block 
the  Cross  was  at  first  to  St.  Paul,  and  when  we  also  con- 
sider all  that  the  Cross  afterwards  became  to  him,  we  can 
see  an  additional  reason  why  he  should  lay  such  stress  upon 
the  obedience  and  character  of  Him  through  whose  offering 
of  Himself  it  was  possible  for  sinful  men  to  be  made  the 
righteousness  of  God.  And  not  only  so,  but  we  can  also 
understand  how  every  detail  of  the  Cross  and  Passion  by 
which  the  obedience  of  the   Saviour  was  consummated  and 

'  That  there  is  no  occasion  to  suppose  that  St.  Paul  was  borrowing 
from  the  Rabbinic  theology,  see  Dalman,  ti.s.  pp.  247,  252  ;  and  Dr. 
Findlay's  valuable  note  on  i  Cor.  xv.  45,  47,  in  the  Expositor's  Greek 
Testament ;  and  Mr.  H.  St.  John  Thackeray,  Relation  of  St.  Paul  to 
Contemporary  Jewish  Thought,  p.  49.  "  The  theory,"  he  adds,  "  that 
St.  Paul  here  conceives  of  Christ  merely  as  the  pre-existent  heavenly 
man  of  Jewish  theology  ...  is  most  certainly  to  be  rejected." 

18 


274    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

His  offering  perfected  should  become  part  of  the  sacred 
tradition,  of  the  sacred  deposit  committed  from  the  first  to 
every  member  of  the  Church. 

There  are,  as  we  have  seen,  notices  both  in  St.  Paul's 
Epistles  and  in  other  New  Testament  Epistles  which  may  be 
fairly  cited  in  support  of  this  likelihood.  Wendt,  indeed, 
maintains  that  it  was  only  the  crucified  Jesus  whom  Paul 
paints  before  the  eyes  of  his  converts  (cf  i  Cor.  ii.  2  ;  Gal. 
iii.  i),  and  he  refers  to  i  Cor.  xi.  23  as  one  of  the  passages, 
which  shows  that  the  Apostle  only  rarely  and  once  in  a  way 
alludes  to  any  sayings  of  Jesus. 

But  it  might  be  as  fairly  maintained  that  if  St.  Paul 
could  refer  so  fully  to  the  incidents  preceding  the  death  of 
Jesus,  when  and  because  occasion  demanded,  he  could  have 
referred  to  other  events  in  the  life  of  His  Master,  if  need 
had  arisen   for  any  such  reference. 

Moreover,  the  Apostle's  introduction  of  the  recital  which 
he  gives  us  in  i  Cor.  xi.  23  ff  is  full  of  significance. 
Nothing,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  in  the  instructions  which 
St.  Paul  was  giving  to  the  Corinthians  led  up  in  any  way 
to  a  mention  of  the  incident  of  our  Lord's  betrayal.  And 
yet  St.  Paul  introduces  a  reference  to  the  fact,  as  perfectly 
well  known,  "  Our  Lord  Jesus,  in  the  night  in  which  He  was 
betrayed"  (i  Cor.  xi.  23).  And  as  in  the  Gospels  the  marking 
out  of  the  traitor  is  closely  connected  with  the  institution  of 
the  Eucharist,  and  either  closely  precedes  or  follows  it,  so 
St.  Paul  significantly  connects  together  the  two  incidents,  as 
if  a  continuous  recital  of  the  events  of  the  Passion  was  a 
familiar  theme.^ 

•  See,  to  this  effect,  a  remarkable  passage  in  Holtzmann,  Haiid- 
Commentar  zum,  N.T.,\.  i,  24,  3rd  edit.  This  is  the  more  notice- 
able because  Holtzmann  contends  that  St.  Paul's  Epistles  contain  few 
references  to  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  Dr. 
Abbott's  criticism,  Paradosis,  131 1,  1355,  etc.,  can  be  thought  to  inter- 
fere with  or  to  lessen  in  any  degree  the  historical  character  of  St.  Paul's 
notice  in  i  Cor.  xi.  23.  Dr.  Abbott  makes  much  of  the  fact  that  St.  Luke 
is  the  only  Evangelist  who  omits  the  words,  "  One  of  you  shall  deliver 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  275 

What  are  we  to  say  of  the  solemn  words  which  follow  the 
reference  to  the  betrayal  ?  In  the  first  place  we  do  well 
to  remember  that  St.  Paul  was  writing  to  a  Church  in  which 
he  had  undoubtedly  many  opponents,  and  it  is  impossible  to 
conceive  that  in  face  of  this  state  of  things  he  would  have 
attempted  to  introduce  anything  unknown  to  the  early 
tradition  of  the  Church  or  at  variance  with  that  which  he 
had  received  in  common  with  the  Twelve.  What  would  the 
party  of  Peter,  or  the  so-called  Christ-party,  have  said  in 
face  of  such  an  attempt — parties  composed  of  men  who 
were  beyond  doubt  ready  to  take  up  and  discuss  Paul's 
every  word  ?  And  yet  we  are  seriously  asked  to  believe 
that  St.  Paul  is  not  referring  to  an  historical  tradition,  but 
to  that  which  he  had  "  received  of  the  Lord  "  in  a  vision. 
But  why  in  a  vision  ?  It  is  entirely  begging  the  question 
to  say  that  the  words  necessarily  point  to  anything  of  the 
kind.  They  may,  and  probably  do,  point  to  an  historical 
tradition.  No  one  has  insisted  upon  this  more  emphatically 
than  Dr.  Zahn.  "  Apart,"  as  he  says,  "  from  the  absurdity 
of  such  a  superfluous  revelation,  an  immediate  communication 
from  the  Lord  would  have  been  expressed  quite  otherwise." 

me  up,"  and  he  thinks  that  the  omission  can  only  be  justified  on  the 
supposition  that  St.  Luke  regarded  such  words  as  unhistorical.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  due  weight  should  surely  be  given  to  the  fact  that 
St.  Luke  is  the  only  Evangelist  who  speaks  of  Judas  as  npodoTrjs  (vi.  i6), 
a  word  which  scarcely  admits  of  any  misinterpretation,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  way  in  which,  as  Dr.  Abbott  allows,  St.  Luke  sometimes  follows 
St.  Mark  in  the  application  of  the  term  Trapadldaifii  to  the  act  of  Judas. 
St.  Luke  is  the  only  Evangelist  who  speaks  of  Judas  as  being  guide  to 
them  that  took  Jesus  (Acts  i.  i6),  a  notice  exactly  in  accordance  with 
another  notice  peculiar  to  St.  Luke  (xxiii.  47),  ' '  He  that  was  called  Judas 
went  before  them."  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  the  verb  napadLScofii 
is  best  interpreted  by  its  context,  and  here,  in  i  Cor.  xi.  23,  the  significant 
mention  of  the  night  seems  naturally  to  connect  it  with  the  dark 
treachery  of  Judas ;  and  so,  too,  in  Matt.  iv.  12,  Mark  i.  14,  where  we 
have  the  same  verb  napebodrj,  the  context  shows  us  that  a  reference  is 
made  to  the  fact  that  John  "was  delivered  up  "  (els  (pvXaKrjv  ;  cf.  Dr. 
Swete's  note  on  Mark  i.  14)  ;  and  the  comment  of  J.  Weiss  on  Mark  i.  14 
(Meyer's  Kommentar)  does  not  alter  this  fact. 


276     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

And  he  quotes  a  whole  series  of  passages  which  bear  out 
this  contention  ;  so,  too,  Dr.  Schmiedel,  who  on  this  point, 
at  all  events,  is  found  in  perfect  agreement  with  a  strong 
conservative  critic  like  Dr.  Zahn.^ 

St.  Paul  says  nothing  more  and  nothing  less  than  that 
the  tradition  which  he  had  delivered  to  the  Corinthians,  and 
of  which  he  now  reminds  them,  is  not  only  identical  with 
that  which  he  had  himself  received  in  earlier  days,  but 
that  it  can  be  followed  up  to  Jesus  Himself,  whose  words 
and  deeds  on  the  night  before  His  death  are  here  in 
question. 

The  more  closely  we  look  into  this  supposition  that 
St.  Paul  could  have  forced  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist 
upon  the  Church  apart  from  historical  facts,  apart  from  the 
sanction  and  the  usage  of  the  Twelve,  the  more  groundless 
does  it  become.^  St.  Mark,  e.g:,  according  to  all  reliable 
tradition,  is  styled  "  the  interpreter  of  Peter."  But  in 
St.  Mark's  Gospel,  to  say  nothing  of  others,  the  Gospel,  i.e., 
which  is  generally  regarded  as  the  earliest  of  the  four,  the 

'  Zahn,  Einleitung  hi  das  N.T.,  p.  171  ;  Schmiedel,  Die  Brief e  an 
die  Korinther,  p.  162,  2nd  edit.  Schmiedel  draws  a  contrast  be- 
tween the  passage  i  Cor.  xi.  23  and  the  words  of  Paul  in  i  Thess. 
iv.  15,  which  perhaps  refer  to  a  special  revelation,  and  he  lays  equal 
stress  with  Zahn  upon  the  distinction  between  otto  and  irapa,  inasmuch 
as  the  former  points  to  an  indirect  reception,  probably  here  by  oral 
tradition.  See  further  for  this,  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  p.  424  ;  also 
Ropes,  Die  Spriiche  Jesu,  p.  135. 

^  And  yet  this  is  what  we  are  asked  to  do,  not  only  by  Dr.  Gardner, 
but  by  Dr.  E.  A.  Abbott  (Contrast,  p.  7),  who  asks  us  to  believe  that 
St.  Paul  could  teach  in  Corinth  and  establish  in  Christendom  words 
that  were  only  meant,  not  said,  by  the  Lord  Jesus.  Amongst  other 
writers  who  have  lately  insisted  upon  referring  the  Lord's  Supper  as  an 
historical  ordinance  to  Christ  Himself  we  may  quote  Weizsacker, 
Afost.  Zeitalter,  p.  574,  3rd  edit;  O.  Holtzmann,  Zeitschrift fiir 
die  neutest.  Wissenschaft,  Heft  ii.  9  (1904)  ;  Wendt,  Die  Lehre 
Jesu,  p.  567,  2nd  edit.  ;  Von  Dobschiitz,  Stndien  und  Kritiken,  i.  16, 
1905  ;  Furrer,  Das  Leben  Jesu  Christi,  pp.  14,  238.  For  a  criticism  of 
Dr.  P.  Gardner's  contentions,  reference  maybe  made  to  Wright's  Some 
N.T.  Problems,  Tp.  139;  ¥i2ink\dind's  Early  Eucharist,^.  120;  Sanday's 
Art.  "Jesus  Christ,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  ii.  638. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  277 

Gospel  which  gives  us  the  old  Jerusalem  tradition,  we  find 
an  account  of  this  institution  in  perfect  accordance  in  its 
main  facts  with  St.  Paul's  statement  to  the  Church  at 
Corinth. 

No  doubt  it  will  be  urged  that  there  are  serious  differ- 
ences between  St.  Mark's  recital  and  St.  Paul's,  and  that 
St.  Mark's,  as  containing  the  oldest  Gospel  tradition,  must  be 
regarded  as  correct.  But  let  us  remember  that  St.  Mark 
gives  us  not  only  the  teaching  of  St.  Peter,  according  to 
the  generally  received  opinion — St.  Mark  was  also  the  com- 
panion of  St.  Paul  and  the  companion  of  St.  Luke  when 
the  two  Evangelists  shared  St.  Paul's  first  imprisonment  in 
Rome.  We  are  certified  of  this  from  Col.  iv.  10,  14 ;  and 
even  Schmiedel  allows  us  to  retain  the  personal  notices  in 
this  Epistle  as  genuine. 

But  in  view  of  this  meeting  of  the  three  men  as  com- 
panions in  Rome,  and  in  view,  too,  of  the  fact  that  when 
St.  Mark  wrote  his  Gospel  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist 
must  have  been  for  a  considerable  period  an  established  act 
of  worship  in  the  Church,^  it  seems  incredible  that  the 
earliest  Evangelist  should  have  given  currency  to  an  account 
of  the  Eucharist  which  essentially  differed  from  that  acknow- 
ledged and  received  by  St.  Paul  and  St.  Luke.  It  is  quite 
true,  e.g.,  that  both  St.  Mark  and  St.  Matthew  say  simply, 
"  This  is  My  body,"  whilst  St.  Paul  says,  "  This  is  My  body 
which  is  for  you  "  or  "  which  is  broken  for  you."  But  we 
can  scarcely  doubt  that  the  accounts  of  St.  Mark  and 
St.  Matthew  were  in  essential  agreement  with  St.  Paul,  since 
St.  Mark  reads,  "  This  is  My  blood  which  is  shed  for  many," 
and  St.  Matthew  has,  "  This  is  My  blood  which  is  shed  for 
many,  unto  remission  of  sins." 

Again,  it  is  quite  true  that  neither  in  St.  Matthew  nor  in 
St.  Mark,  according  to  high  authority,  does  the  word  "  new  " 
occur  ;  but  it  is  equally  true  to  say  that  the  inauguration  of 
^  Rose,  Studies  in  the  Gospels,  pp.  249-50,  E.T. 


278     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

a  New  Covenant  is  necessarily  involved  in  these  accounts.^ 
St.  Mark  and  St.  Matthew  both  write,  "  This  is  My  blood 
of  the  covenant "  ;  but  such  words,  let  us  never  forget  it, 
were  spoken  primarily  to  Jews,  and  they  would  carry  back 
the  thought  of  our  Lord's  first  hearers  to  Exod.  xxiv.  8,^ 
and  to  the  ratification  of  the  solemn  covenant  between  God 
and  His  people  :  "  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which 
the  Lord  hath  made  with  you  concerning  all  these  words." 

But  when  Christ  says,  "  This  is  My  blood  of  the  covenant," 
can  we  doubt  that  He  would  thus  draw  a  distinction  between 
Ae  covenant  inaugurated  by  the  blood  of  burnt-offerings 
and  peace-offerings  and  His  own  blood,  between  the  victims, 
the  calves  and  goats,  slain  to  ratify  the  Old  Covenant,  and 
His  own  death,  the  offering  of  Himself? 

Moreover,  this  blood,  according  to  St.  Mark's  account,  is 
to  be  shed  for  many.  It  was  not  only  to  inaugurate  a 
covenant,  but  to  be  a  redemptive  sacrifice.  According  to 
St.  Mark's  account  and  that  of  St.  Matthew,  a  new  state  of 
things  is  represented  as  connected  with  the  death  of  Jesus  ; 
and  if  they  omit  the  word  "  new  "  in  speaking  of  the 
Christian  Covenant,  it  is  surely  not  without  significance  that 
they  should  both  at  once  add  our  Lord's  words  of  the  fruit 
of  the  vine,  "  until  I  drink  it  Jiciu  in  the  kingdom  of  God." 

How  the  early  Church  developed  this  thought  of  the 
"  New  Covenant  "  we  can  abundantly  see.  Christ,  says  the 
writer  of  Hebrews,  is  the  mediator  of  a  "  New  Covenant  " 
(Heb.  ix.  15),  and  we  need  look  no  further  than  2  Cor.  iii.  6 
to  see  how  St.  Paul  regarded  himself  and  spoke  of  himself 
as  the  minister  of  a  "  New  Covenant."  If  our  Lord  had  used 
such  a  phrase  on  the  solemn  occasion  of  His  Last  Supper 
with  the  Twelve,  we  can  at  once  understand  how  the  words 

'  Peine,  yesJis  Chrisius  itnd  Paulas^  p.  236  ;  andhe  rightly  concludes, 
"  Ob  der  Bund  ausdriicklich  als  Kaiwir  bezeichnet  wird  oder  nicht,  ist 
ohne  Belang."     See  also,  to  the  same  effect,  Titius,  it.s.  p.  176. 

-  This  is  frankly  admitted,  amongst  more  recent  writers,  by  Wendt, 
Die  Lehrc  'Jcsk,  2nd  edit.,  p.  569. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  279 

would  become,  as  it  were,  consecrated  words  in  connection 
with  the  Gospel  message.^  At  all  events,  this  use  of  the 
expression  by  St.  Paul  in  writing  to  his  converts,  as  of 
something  which  would  be  at  once  intelligible  to  them,  is 
most  significant. 

It  is  again  significant  that  only  in  these  two  Gospels, 
St.  Mark  and  St.  Matthew,  do  we  find  our  Lord's  saying 
that  His  life  should  be  a  ransom  for  many  (Mark  x.  45  ; 
Matt.  X.  29) ;  so  that  Feine  is  quite  right  in  insisting  that  the 
words  at  the  Last  Supper  do  not  stand  as  it  were  by  them- 
selves ;  they  are  related  in  a  very  deep  sense  to  the  two 
passages  just  named.^ 

Moreover,  the  prophet  Jeremiah  had  used  the  very  phrase 
"a  New  Covenant"  (xxxi.  31),  and  every  Israelite  was  looking 
forward  to  that  covenant  with  eager  hope.  Jeremiah,  too, 
had  connected  that  New  Covenant  most  clearly  with  the 
thought  of  pardon  and  forgiveness,  and,  in  a  far  deeper  and 
truer  sense  than  in  the  old  sacrificial  ritual,  our  Lord  would 
teach  His  hearers  in  that  solemn  hour  of  approaching 
parting  from  them  that  without  shedding  of  blood  there  is 
no  remission.  Forgiveness  is  associated  with  His  death,  "  This 
is  My  blood  of  the  covenant  which  is  shed  for  you  and  for 
many  for  the  remission  of  sins." 

One  other  point  must  be  briefly  noticed  in  this  same  con- 
nection. We  do  not  find  in  St.  Matthew  or  St.  Mark  the 
words  which  St.  Paul  quotes  as  spoken  by  our  Lord,  "  This  do 
in  remembrance  of  Me"  (i  Cor.  xi.  24-5).  Hence  Schmiedel 
has  maintained  that  as  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  would  not 
dare  to  omit  such  words  of  Jesus  at  such  a   solemn  hour, 

1  Feine,  zi.s.  p.  246  ;  Titius,  u.s.  p.  177  ;  so,  too,  Dean  Bernard, 
Expositor'' s  Greek  Test,  iii.  54,  and  Heinrici's  note  on  2  Cor.  iii.  6. 

^  "It  would  not  show  a  want  of  the  critical  spirit,"  writes  Dr.  P. 
Gardner,  "to  go  further  than  this,  and  to  maintain,  with  Professor 
Harnack,  that  Jesus,  assigned  a  special  significance  to  His  death  in 
relation  to  the  forgiveness  of  sins"  {Historic  Vieii)  of  the  N.T,^ 
p.   100). 


28o     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

they  were  therefore  never  spoken  by  Him  at  all,  but  that  by 
degrees,  one  after  another  of  His  followers,  as  they  ate  the 
bread  and  drank  the  cup,  and  repeated  the  words,  "  Take, 
eat,"  or  "  Drink  ye  all  of  it,"  gradually  and  unconsciously  fell 
into  saying  :  "  We  do  this  in  remembrance  of  the  Lord," 
words  which  soon  became  transformed  into  :  "  Do  this  in 
remembrance  of  Me." 

But  this  attempted  explanation  of  Dr.  Schmiedel,  which 
painfully  reminds  us  of  a  scene  depicted  in  a  religious  novel, 
Robert  Elsmere,  and  which  seems  to  be  equally  devoid  of 
any  solid  foundation,  fails  at  least  in  two  respects,  to  say 
nothing  of  others.  In  the  first  place,  it  fails  to  tell  us  why 
the  early  Church  repeated  the  sacred  Feast  without  any 
definite  commission  to  do  so  from  the  Lord,  and  in  the  next 
place  the  objection  to  the  omission  of  the  words,  "Do  this  in 
remembrance  of  Me,"  in  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark,  has 
really  no  weight  at  all,  simply  because  at  the  time  of  the 
composition  of  these  Gospels  there  is  every  reason  to  believe 
that  the  Lord's  Supper  was  everywhere  an  integral  part  of 
Christian  worship.^ 

But,  further,  this  act  of  worship  was  closely  associated 
with  a  particular  day.  "  The  first  day  of  the  week  "  is  an 
expression  used  not  only  by  each  of  the  four  Evangelists, 
but  by  St.  Paul  in  his  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 
Whatever  date  we  assign  to  the  Gospels,  it  is  evident  that 
this  day,  this  "  first  day  of  the  week,"  must  have  had  some 
special  meaning  for  Christians,  when  St.  Paul  wrote  to  the 
Church  at  Corinth,  and  he  had  already  prescribed  the  same 
day  for  the  churches  of  Galatia.  He  does  not  consider  it 
necessary  to  give  any  reason   for  its  selection.      "  Now  con- 

^  For  an  historical  sketch  of  the  different  views  with  regard  to  the 
institution  and  meaning  of  the  Eucharist,  including  those  of  Harnack, 
Jiilicher,  Schmiedel,  and  other  recent  writers,  see  Das  Abendmahl  im 
Zusammenhang  mit  detn  Leben  Jesu  uridder  Geschichtedes  Urchris- 
tentums,  Heft  i.,  by  A.  Schweizer,  1901  ;  and,  further,  P.  Schmidt 
Geschichte  Jesu,  ii,  1"]}^  (1904). 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  281 

cerning  the  collection  for  the  saints,"  he  writes,  "  as  I  gave 
orders  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia,  so  also  do  ye.  Upon  the 
first  day  of  the  week  let  each  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in 
store  as  he  may  prosper." 

But  we  turn  to  St.  Luke,  the  companion  of  St.  Paul,  and 
we  note  that  in  one  of  those  passages  of  the  Acts  which 
belong,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  most  authoritative  part  of 
the  book,  the  "  We  "-sections,  he  unites  together  in  a  most 
definite  manner  the  institution  of  the  Christian  Sunday  and 
the  institution  of  the  Holy  Communion. 

At  Troas,  St.  Luke  and  St.  Paul  are  gathered  together 
with  their  companions  and  the  Church  to  break  bread  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week  (Acts  xx.  7).  How  impossible 
it  is  for  "  advanced  criticism  "  to  break  down  the  force  and 
the  witness  of  this  passage  we  shall  see  further  in  the  next 
lecture. 

But  if  on  the  third  day,  i.e.  "  the  first  day  of  the  week," 
Jesus  Christ  rose  again  according  to  the  Scriptures,  then,  and 
then  only,  we  can  understand  how  a  man  like  St.  Paul,  with 
all  his  Jewish  instincts  and  Jewish  training,  could  centre  the 
thoughts  of  Christians,  not  upon  the  Jewish  sabbath,  the 
seventh,  but  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  as  the  day  of 
holy  communion  with  their  risen  Lord  and  of  mutual  and 
loving  intercourse  :  "  Seeing  that  we  who  are  many  are  one 
bread,  one  body  :  for  we  all  partake  of  the  one  bread " 
(i  Cor.  xi.  17). 

Many  years  ago  Bishop  Westcott  pointed  out  that  no 
evidence  of  the  power  or  reality  of  a  belief  can  be  less  open 
to  suspicion  than  that  which  is  derived  from  public  services, 
which,  as  far  as  all  evidence  reaches,  were  contemporaneous 
with  its  origin  and  uninterruptedly  perpetuated  through  the 
body  which  holds  it. 

That  statement  receives  a  continuous  illustration  from 
the  facts  of  which  I  have  just  spoken,  the  fact  of  the 
existence  of  the  Holy  Communion,  the  fact  of  the  existence 


282     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

of  the  Christian  Sunday.  And  the  force  of  this  illustration 
cannot  be  broken  unless  we  are  prepared  to  invalidate  the 
proof  afforded  by  one  of  St.  Paul's  practically  undisputed 
Epistles,  I  Corinthians,  and  by  a  document  which  we  are 
justly  entitled  to  attribute  to  one  of  the  Apostle's  intimate 
friends. 

There  is  another  point  of  view  from  which  the  Holy 
Communion  is  now  constantly  regarded,  viz.  from  the 
point  of  view  of  comparative  religion.^  One  of  the  boldest 
amongst  the  many  bold  attempts  in  this  direction  is  un- 
doubtedly that  of  Professor  Gunkel  of  Berlin,  who  is  not 
content  without  carrying  his  Old  Testament  criticism  into 
his  consideration  of  the  New  Testament  books  and  of  the 
early  Christian   Church. 

Dr.  Gunkel,  with  no  want  of  gravity,  asks  us  to  see  in 
the  celebration  of  a  certain  day  for  the  worship  of  the  sun- 
god  the  origin  of  the  Christian  Sunday.^  All  difficulties, 
we  are  assured,  connected  with  the  introduction  of  the 
first  day  of  the  week  into  Christian  worship  would  vanish 
if  we  adopt   this   easy   solution.      But  is   it  so   easy? 

In  the  first  place.  Dr.  Gunkel  does  not  attempt  to  deny 
that  the  celebration  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  belonged 
to  the  very  earliest  Christian  origins,  and  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  refer  to  Acts  xx.  7  and  i  Cor.  xvi.  2  in  proof 
of  this.  He  also  further  allows  that  this  celebration  of  the 
first  day  could  not  have  been  derived  from  Old  Testament 
prophecies,  although  sanction  for  it  was  subsequently  found 
in  Hos.  vi.  2.  But  Dr.  Gunkel  thinks  that  he  is  on  safe 
ground  in  maintaining  that  this  solemn  observance  of  the 
first  day  of  the  week  was  derived  from  Babylonian  in- 
fluences. No  doubt  it  is  very  difficult,  as  Gunkel  very 
plainly   saw,  to   account   for  this  observance,  apart  from  a 

•  See  further  for  literature  on  this  point,  and  the  strictures  of  H. 
Holtzmann  and  others,  Lecture  XXII. 

2  Zum  religionsgeschichtlichen  Verstdndniss  des  N.T.,  p.  ^i^ 
(1903)- 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS         283 

certain   historical    fact,    which    Gunkel    and    his   school   per- 
sistently ignore.      What,  then,  is  the  explanation  ? 

He  admits  that  the  early  Christians  took  over  the  day 
without  any  full  consciousness  that  they  were  deriving  its 
celebration  from  the  day  of  the  sun-god.  This  being  so, 
he  has  further  to  maintain  that  there  were  certain  circles 
in  Judaism  which  were  already  accustomed  to  celebrate 
the  day  of  the  sun  ;  out  of  these  circles  the  oldest  Christian 
members  were  recruited,  and  these  Christians  identified  the 
Lord,  to  whose  worship  the  day  of  the  sun  was  devoted, 
with  their  Jesus. 

But  in  the  first  place  the  Lord  worshipped  by  the  oldest 
Christians  was  scarcely  the  sun-god  of  Babylon,  but  rather 
the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  in  His  holiness  and  unique 
sovereignty.  We  have  therefore  still  to  ask  why  the  early 
Christians  thus  identified  their  Jesus  with  the  Sovereign 
Lord  of  the  Jews. 

In  the  next  place,  this  celebration  of  the  first  day  of 
the  week  was  admittedly  accepted  from  the  earliest  days 
of  the  Church,  and  it  was  accepted  by  Jewish  Christians 
and  Gentile  Christians  alike.  But  there  is  no  reason 
whatever  to  suppose  that  the  whole  Christian  Church  would 
perpetuate  the  day  which  marked  an  obscure  Jewish 
festival,  nor  is  it  at  all  likely  that  any  Christians  who 
had  come  under  the  influence  of  St.  Paul  would  have 
been  taught  to  add,  or  would  have  cared  to  add,  another 
festival  of  such  a  kind  to  their  religious  observances. 

Dr.  Gunkel  somewhat  naively  urges  that  it  makes  no 
matter  whether  the  name  Sunday  was  actually  used  in 
the  days  of  these  primitive  Christians  or  not,  and  he  admits 
that  it  was  first  found  among  Christians  in  the  writings 
of  Justin  Martyr.  But  it  surely  makes  a  very  considerable 
difference  to  his  theory,  for  if  our  Lord  rose  from  the 
dead  on  the  day  which  all  four  Gospels  and  St.  Paul 
?ilike  proclaim,  we  have  a  sufficient   reason  for  the  obser- 


284     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

vance  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  without  having  recourse 
to  the  worship  of  the  sun-god  or  to  any  of  the  various 
rehgions  invoked  by  Dr.  Gunkel.  The  early  Christian 
Church  was  founded  not  upon  myths,  but  upon  facts,  upon 
the  historical  facts  of  the  life,  death,  and  resurrection 
of  Jesus   the   Son   of  God. 

But  again  :  an  attempt  is  made  to  distinguish  between 
the  words  of  our  Lord  at  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist 
and  the  sacramental  teaching  which  in  the  early  Church 
became  associated  with  it.  The  latter,  it  is  asserted,  we 
owe  entirely  to  St,  Paul,  and  it  cannot  be  derived  from 
the  simple  statements  of  Jesus  at  the  Last  Supper.^  But 
whatever  points  of  contact  may  be  discoverable  between 
the  teaching  of  St.  Paul  and  the  idea  common  to  so 
many  Oriental  cults  that  the  worshipper  at  a  sacrificial 
feast  entered  into  actual  communion  and  oneness  with 
the  god  whom  he  worshipped  by  partaking  of  the  blood 
of  a  consecrated  victim,  we  must  remember  that  this  idea 
of  partaking  of  blood,  of  tasting  or  enjoying  blood,  would 
have  been  most  repugnant  and  abhorrent  to  every  Jew. 

But  if  we  once  admit  that  the  words  and  acts  of  in- 
stitution go  back  to  our  Lord  Himself,  we  cannot  avoid 
the  fact  that  the  Holy  Supper  was  ordained  for,  and 
partaken  of,  in  the  first  place,  by  men  who  were  Jews. 

No  one  has  insisted  upon  this  more  strongly  or  more 
ably   than    Dr.    Furrer  in  his   recent  popular  Leben  Jesu. 

In  the  next  place  we  cannot  but  remember  that  St.  Paul 
in  this  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  lays  stress   upon   the 

'  Cf,  e.g.,  Heitmiiller,  Taufe  und  Abendmahl  bet  Paulus,  p.  36  fE 
(1903).  It  will  be  noticed  that  Heitmuller,  while  he  insists  no  less  than 
Dr.  P.  Gardner  upon  the  mystical  meaning  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
St.  Paul's  teaching,  definitely  allows  that  the  words  of  institution,  at 
least  in  their  simplest  form,  go  back  to  an  actual  ordinance  of  Christ 
Himself,  and  that  they  were  not  the  outcome  of  a  vision  of  St.  Paul. 

2  We  could  easily  explain  the  recital,  he  points  out,  if  we  were  in 
the  Grecian  world,  for  the  Greeks  of  old  believed  that  if  one  enjoyed  the 
flesh  and  blood  of  a  consecrated  victim,  the  deity  itself  entered  into 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  285 

fact  that  he  too  goes  back  to  the  words  and  institution  of 
Jesus  ;  and  he  must  have  felt  that  in  his  own  teaching 
with  reference  to  the  Supper  of  the  Lord  he  was  not  at 
variance  with,  but  rather  dependent  upon,  the  mind  of 
Christ. 

It  is  one  thing  to  trace  some  point  of  analogy  in  the 
Holy  Communion  to  this  religion  or  to  that ;  but  still,  it 
is  well  to  remember  that  to  trace  an  analogy  is  not  to 
discover  a  cause.  In  the  Holy  Communion  we  see  the 
fulfilment  of  the  deepest  cravings  of  human  nature  for 
union  with  the  divine — cravings  witnessed  to  by  the  crude 
and  fantastic  rites  of  this  religion  or  that ;  but  that  ful- 
filment is  assured  to  us  not  by  the  words  of  any  human 
teacher,  but  by  the  words  and  presence  of  Him  who  was 
both  human  and  divine,  "  the  Lord  Jesus,"  as  St.  Paul 
calls   Him.^ 

"  The  Lord  Jesus,  the  same  night  in  which  He  was 
betrayed,  took  bread."  The  solemn  words  remind  us  that 
the  thought  of  our  Lord's  violent  death,  quickly  ap- 
proaching Him,  was  one  which  came  to  the  disciples  as  a 
surprise. 

"It  is  a  masterpiece,"  says  a  thoughtful  German  critic. 
Dr.  Wendt,  "  of  the  practical  skill  of  Jesus  as  a  Teacher, 
that  in  this  situation  He  did  not  give  them  a  piece  of 
theoretical  instruction  which  they  would  not  have  correctly 
grasped,  but  spoke  to  them  by  means  of  an  action  which 
would  stamp  itself  for  ever  on  their  memories."  ^  And 
twenty  centuries  of  Christian  history,  during  which,  so  far 

the  partaker.  But,  he  pointedly  adds,  we  are  not  in  Greek  territory, 
but  in  Jerusalem,  from  which  such  thoughts  were  far  removed,  and  he 
goes  on  to  speak  of  the  deep  repugnance  of  the  Jew  to  the  enjoyment 
or  tasting  of  blood  [Leben  Jesu,  pp.  238-9 ;  1901,  ist  edit.,  2nd 
edit.,  1905).  See,  further,  Lecture  XXIV.,  for  the  recent  strictures  of 
Dobschiitz,  no  less  than  of  Nosgen  and  Feine,  upon  the  attempts  to 
refer  the  derivation  of  the  Eucharist  to  pagan  mysteries. 

'  See,  further,  Lecture  XXIV,  and  literature  there  given. 

*  Wendt,  Die  Lehre  'Jesu,  p.  568,  2nd  edit. 


286    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

as  we  know,  the  Holy  Supper  has  been  commemorated 
without  break  or  interruption,  witness  to  what  we  may 
reverently  call  "  the  practical  skill  "  of  the  divine  Teacher  ; 
and  men  and  women  have  felt  in  their  inmost  souls,  as  they 
eat  that  bread  and  drink  that  cup  of  blessing,  that  they 
proclaim  the  Lord's  death  until   He  comes. 


LECTURE    XIV 
EPISTLES    TO    THE    CORINTHIANS    {continued) 

WE  have  noted  in  the  preceding  lecture  some  of  the 
points  of  contact  between  our  Lord's  teaching 
and  that  of  St.  Paul  which  we  may  find  in  these  two 
Corinthian  Epistles.  There  are  perhaps  no  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul  in  which  the  points  of  contact  are  more  numerous  ; 
and  although  no  doubt  some  of  them  may  not  seem  very 
important,  it  is  impossible  to  question  the  significance  of 
others. 

The  conception,  e.g.,  of  the  kingdom  of  God  occupies  a 
prominent  place  in  the  first  Epistle,  and  although  it  does 
not  occur  in  so  many  words  in  the  second,  yet  there,  too, 
such  passages  as  2  Cor.  vi.  2,  "  Behold  now  is  the  acceptable 
time  ;  behold  now  is  the  day  of  salvation,"  ^  have  been  taken 
to  indicate  that  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  was  life  and 
salvation,  had  already  come,  and  that  "  the  fulness  of  time  " 
in  the  world's  history  had  been  realised.  Here,  then,  as 
Wendt  says,  is  one  of  the  chief  points  of  agreement  between 
the  teaching  of  Paul  and  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The 
Apostle  indeed  uses  the  term,  as  we  have  previously  noted, 
much  more  seldom  than  his  Lord  ;  but  his  use  of  it  points 
back  to  the  earlier  teaching  of  Jesus  (i  Cor.  vi.  9),  and  it 
is  also  evident  that  he  uses  the  term  as  Jesus  had  done  in 
a  twofold  sense  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  conceives  of  the  kingdom 

*  See  Feine,  u.s.  pp.  281-2,  who  compares  Luke  iv.  19,  21. 

287 


288     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

as  present  (i  Cor.  iv.  20)^  and  as  future  (cf.    i    Cor.  vi.  9, 
XV.  50). 

In  this  relation  of  the  kingdom  to  the  Apostle's  eschatolo- 
gical  teaching  it  is  specially  important  to  notice,  in  passing, 
that  when  St.  Paul  writes,  "  When  He  {i.e.  Christ)  shall 
deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father"  (i  Cor. 
XV.  24),  or,  again,  verse  28,  "  When  all  things  have  been 
subjected  unto  Him,  then  shall  the  Son  also  Himself  be 
subjected  to  Him  that  did  subject  all  things  unto  Him,"  that 
these  terms  "  the  Father,"  "  the  Son,"  are  used  by  the 
Apostle  in  the  same  absolute  sense  in  which  we  believe 
that  our  Lord  Himself  uses  them  in  the  Gospels.  If  our 
Lord  did  so  use  them,  and  if  from  His  use  of  them  the 
terms  passed  into  the  current  teaching  of  the  Church,  then 
we  can  understand  St.  Paul's  use  of  them  ;  otherwise,  it  is 
difficult,  one  might  say  impossible,  to  account  for  the 
Apostle's  language. 

But  this  twofold  conception  of  the  kingdom  as  present 
and  future,  and  the  passages  in  these  Epistles  in  which  the 
conception  is  embodied,  are  of  great  importance  from 
another  point  of  view. 

In  the  first  place,  such  passages  help  us  to  see  how  far 
removed  was  St.  Paul's  whole  idea  of  the  kingdom,  of  its 
realisation,  of  its  contents,  from  that  which  was  prevalent  at 
the  time  of  the  Advent,  as  we  gather  a  knowledge  of  it 
from  the  Psalms  of  Solomon.  On  the  one  hand,  it  has  been 
well  pointed  out  that  all  idea  of  a  visible  earthly  reign  of 
the  Messiah,  all  thought  of  a  visible  Hebrew  kingdom  or 
of  Jerusalem  as  its  centre,  every  shred  of  nationalism,  has 
disappeared.      But  on   the  other   hand,    it   has    been    noted 

1  Cf.  Wendt,  Die  Lehre  Jesu,  especially  pp.  270-1,  2nd  edit.,  and, 
amongst  English  writers,  Kennedy,  St.  Paul's  Conceptions  of  the  Lasi 
Things,  p.  289  (1904),  in  which  he  points  out  that  such  a  passage  as 
I  Cor.  iv.  20  shows  that  we  cannot  restrict  St.  Paul  to  the  purely 
eschatological  sense  of  the  word  "kingdom"  or  the  idea  which  it 
embodies. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  289 

with  equal  truth  that  the  eschatological  side  of  Jewish 
hope  has  been  deepened,  spirituahsed,  and  strengthened/ 
To  what  source  do  we  owe  this  abrupt  transition  from  the 
Psalms  of  Solomon  to  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul  ?  To  the 
words  and  the  teaching  of  Christ. 

For  our  Lord,  as  for  St.  Paul,  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
both  present  and  future  ;  for  our  Lord,  as  for  St.  Paul,  the 
kingdom  which  had  been  the  nationalist  hope  of  the  Jew, 
the  salvation  which  was  primarily  of  "  the  Jews,"  widens  and 
deepens  into  a  reign  of  life  for  all  who  should  receive  the 
abundance  of  grace  and  the  gift  of  righteousness  (Rom.  v.  17). 

But  one,  at  least,  of  these  passages  relating  to  the 
kingdom  is  of  further  import,  because  we  have  in  it  the 
formula  which  so  often  recurs  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  "  Do 
ye  not  know  ?  "  or  "  Ye  know,"  sometimes  no  doubt  in  quite 
a  general  sense,  but  sometimes  in  a  way  which  seems  to 
suggest  that  the  Apostle  was  basing  his  teaching  upon 
some  sayings  of  our  Lord,  upon  some  tradition  of  the 
teaching  which  he  had  himself  received,  and  to  which  he 
could  confidently  refer.^  "  Know  ye  not  that  the  saints 
shall  judge  the  world?  (i  Cor.  vi.  2).  "Know  ye  not  that 
the  unrighteous  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  ? " 
(i  Cor.  vi.  9). 

This  latter  passage  is  of  peculiar  interest,  because  Harnack 
and  others  consider  that  the  catalogue  of  sins  which  follows 
this  appeal  may  be  traced  back  in  its  origin  to  words  of 
the  Lord,  and,  further,  that  we  may  perhaps  account  on  this 
supposition  for  the  formula  which  so  frequently  occurs,  "  They 
who  do  such  things  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  " 

1  Bishop  of  Exeter,  Regnu?Jt  Dei,  pp.  39,  96. 

^  Feine,  u.s.  p.  295,  gives  some  interesting  illustrations.  Thus  i  Cor. 
iii.  16,  ix.  13 ;  2  Cor.  v.  1,6;  Gal.  ii.  16  ;  Eph.  vi.  8,  9  may  well  point 
back  to  some  previous  teaching  or  expression  ;  but  Rom  xiv.  14,  with 
its  positive  statement,  may  well  refer  to  Matt.  xv.  1 1  ;  so,  too,  i  Thess. 
iii.  3  may  be  referred  to  Mark  viii.  34,  and  possibly,  according  to  Feine, 
I  Cor.  vi.  16  to  Matt.  xix.  5. 

19 


290    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

(cf.  Gal.  V.  21  ;  Rom.  i.   32  ;   Eph.  v.  5),  pointing  us  back  to 
some  previous  teaching  on  the  subject.^ 

The  former  passage  (i  Cor.  vi.  2)  is  also  taken  by  many 
writers  to  refer  to  our  Lord's  own  sayings  (Matt.  xix.  28  ; 
Luke  xxii.  30),  although  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  words 
of  Dan.  vii.  22,  27  (cf  Wisdom  iii.  8  ;  Rev.  xx.  4)  ^  may 
account  for  St.  Paul's  language.  At  the  same  time  we  must 
remember  that  in  St.  Paul's  earliest  Epistle  (i  Thessalonians) 
we  find  passages  in  which  the  saints  are  definitely  associated 
with  Christ  in  the  judgment. 

If  we  turn  to  another  familiar  tract  of  our  Lord's  teaching, 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  we  find  evidence  in  i  Corinthians 
of  St.  Paul's  acquaintance,  if  not  with  its  letter,  yet,  at  all 
events,  with  its  spirit.  We  may  compare,  e.g.,  as  Resch 
does,  such  words  as,  "  Being  reviled,  we  bless ;  being 
persecuted,  we  endure"  (i  Cor.  iv.  12),  with  the  familiar 
Beatitudes,  "  Blessed  are  they  that  are  persecuted  for 
righteousness'  sake  ;  blessed  are  ye  when  men  shall  reproach 
you  and  persecute  you  "  (Matt.  v.  11). 

Or,  again,  with  St.  Paul's  sad  irony,  "  Now  ye  are  full, 
now  ye  are  rich,  ye  have  reigned  as  kings  without  us,"  we 
may  compare,  as  Holtzmann  does,  the  familiar  words, 
"  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  and  the  promise  which  tells  us  how  they  that 
hunger  after  righteousness  shall  be  filled. 

Or,  again,  as  we  listen  to  St.  Paul's  indignant  remonstrance 

^  See,  especially  for  the  view  of  Harnack  and  a  valuable  discussion 
of  it,  Feine,  7i.s.  p.  294. 

^  Kennedy,  us.  p.  192.  Feine  takes  the  passage  as  probably 
referring  to  Luke  xxii.  30,  u.s.  p.  178. 

'"  M.  Goguel  lays  stress  upon  the  same  parallels,  and  gives  us  next 
in  order  i  Cor.  v.  4  and  Matt,  xviii.  20,  "  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
ye  being  gathered  together  and  my  spirit,  with  the  power  of  our  Lord 
Jesus."  The  word  for  "gathered  together"  {(Tvvr]y\iivoC)  \s  the  same 
as  that  used  in  the  Saviour's  promise  in  St.  Matthew  {U Apotre  Paul 
et  Jesus  Christ).  With  this  Feine  agrees  i^u .s.  p.  293) ;  but  it  is  not 
wise  to  insist  too  strongly  upon  this  alleged  parallel. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS         291 

to  these  same  Corinthian  converts,  "  Now  there  is  utterly  a 
fault  among  you,  because  ye  go  to  law  one  with  another. 
Why  do  ye  not  rather  take  wrong  ?  Why  do  ye  not  rather 
suffer  yourselves  to  be  defrauded  ? "  (i  Cor.  vi.  7)  :  is  it 
fanciful  to  catch  an  echo  of  that  same  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  "If  any  man  will  sue  thee  at  the  law,  and  take 
away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also  "  ? 

But  whilst  we  may  thus  show  how  clearly  St.  Paul's 
teaching  is  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  in  the  proclamation  of 
His  kingdom,  it  is  no  doubt  possible  to  push  the  points 
of  likeness  too  far.  Thus,  e.g.,  we  noted  in  a  previous 
lecture  that  it  is  not  wise  to  suppose  that  because  St.  Paul 
introduces  familiar  imagery,  e.g.  that  of  building,  or  of  the 
working  of  leaven,  or  of  removing  mountains,  that  he  is  in 
any  way  dependent  upon  any  particular  sayings  of  our 
Lord. 

At  the  same  time,  it  remains  a  noteworthy  fact  that  in 
I  Cor.  ix.  7  St.  Paul  uses  a  whole  series  of  images  of  the 
work  of  the  Christian  ministry,  the  imagery  of  planting  a 
vineyard,  of  feeding  a  flock,  of  sowing  and  reaping,  which 
reminds  us  of  the  figures  under  which  our  Lord  Himself 
loved  to  represent  the  work  of  those  who  were  to  preach 
His  Gospel. 

But  whether  we  have  regard  to  the  close  or  to  the 
commencement  of  our  Lord's  ministry,  we  cannot  fail  to 
see  how  plainly  St.  Paul's  conceptions  of  his  Master  are 
connected  with  the  representations  of  the  Gospels.  Thus, 
when  he  tells  the  Corinthians  (2  Cor.  v.  14),  that  we  must 
all  be  made  manifest  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  we 
are  at  once  reminded  of  our  Lord's  imagery  of  the  Son  of 
Man,  the  Judge  of  mankind,  sitting  in  judgment  upon  the 
throne  of  His  glory  (Matt.  xxv.  31) ;  and  when  St.  Paul,  in 
the  same  breath,  reminds  his  converts  of  the  purpose  of  that 
manifestation,  viz.  that  each  one  may  receive  the  things  done 
in  the  body,  we  remember  how  our  Lord  had  said,  "  The 


292    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  His  Father  with  the 
angels  ;  and  then  shall  He  render  to  every  man  according 
to  his  deeds  "  (Matt.  xvi.  27). 

St.  Paul,  moreover,  conceives  of  our  Lord  not  only  as  a 
future,  but  as  a  present  judge,  and  he  does  so  in  words 
which  irresistibly  remind  us  of  Christ's  own  promised 
presence  in  His  Church.  The  Corinthian  Christians  are  to 
judge  the  evil-doer,  but  they  are  to  do  so  "  in  the  name  of 
our  Lord  Jesus,  ye  being  gathered  together,  and  my  spirit, 
with  the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  "  (i  Cor.  v.  4).  Here 
we  have  a  close  parallel  extending  even  to  verbal  identity, 
with  our  Lord's  familiar  words,  "  Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of 
them  "  (Matt,  xviii.  20). 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  this  phrase  "  in 
My  name "  has  recently  received  very  striking  illustrations 
from  its  use  in  the  papyri,  and  in  heathen  mystical  and 
magical  formulae.^  But,  quite  apart  from  these  uses,  it  may 
well  have  had  its  origin  far  back  in  the  Old  Testament ;  and 
if  such  a  phrase  was  often  used  by  our  Lord,  as  the  New 
Testament  testifies,  we  are  thus  enabled  to  understand  the 
frequent  employment  of  similar  phrases  by  St.  Paul  and 
the  other  Apostles.  If,  moreover,  St.  Paul  had  thus  before 
him  the  thought  of  Christ  as  the  Judge,  it  does  not  seem 
fanciful  to  suppose  that  he  would  have  been  acquainted  with 
the  principle  upon  which  that  judgment  was  based  ;  and  if 
so,  he  might  well  have  recalled  the  manner  in  which  our 
Lord  identified  Himself  with  the  least  of  His  brethren  at 
the  judgment  (Matt.  xxv.  40),  as  he  wrote  to  the  Corinthians 
those  pathetic  words,  "  And  thus,  sinning  against  the  brethren, 
and  wounding  their  conscience  when  it  is  weak,  ye  sin 
against  Christ  "  (i   Cor.  viii.  12). 

But  there   are   other  sayings   connected   with   our   Lord's 
ministry,  sayings  second  to  none  in   beauty  and  importance, 
'  Heitmiiller,  hn  Namen  Jesu,  p.  197  flf  (1903).: 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  293 

which  it  is  necessary  to  consider  in  our  treatment  of  these 
two  Corinthian  Epistles. 

It  will  seem  to  most,  if  not  to  all  of  you,  quite  incredible 
that  any  criticism,  even  the  most  advanced,  should  seriously 
ask  us  to  believe  that  our  Lord's  words  in  Matt.  xi.  25, 
Luke  X.  22,  concerning  the  unique  relationship  between 
Himself  and  the  Father,  were  not  uttered  by  Him,  but  were 
composed,  and  attributed  to  Him,  from  one  or  more  passages 
in  this  first  Corinthian  Epistle  (cf,  e.g.,  i  Cor.  i.  19 — iii.  21, 
XV.  27).  St.  Paul  speaks  to  the  Corinthians  of  God  destroying 
the  wisdom  of  the  wise  and  rejecting  the  prudence  of  the 
prudent  ;  he  speaks  of  a  hidden  wisdom  of  God,  of  a  wisdom 
revealed  through  the  Spirit,  of  the  things  of  God  which  none 
knoweth  save  the  Spirit  of  God,  of  God's  good  pleasure  to 
use  the  foolishness  of  the  thing  preached,  of  babes  in  Christ. 
Elsewhere  he  tells  us  that  the  Father  had  put  all  things  in 
subjection  under  the  feet  of  Christ.  And  from  these  and 
similar  sayings  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  our  Lord's 
words  are  derived,  "  I  thank  Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  that  Thou  didst  hide  these  things  from  the  wise 
and  understanding,  and  didst  reveal  them  unto  babes  ;  yea, 
Father,  for  so  it  was  well  pleasing  in  Thy  sight.  All  things 
have  been  delivered  unto  Me  of  My  Father  ;  and  none 
knoweth  the  Son,  save  the  Father  ;  neither  doth  any  man 
know  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the 
Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him."  ^ 

But  this  is  not  all. 

There   are  some  other  words  of  our  Lord  which  closely 

'  So  Pfleiderer,  Z'^i'  Urchristetitu-m,  i.  (>(>'&  {1(^02);  Brandt,  £van£: 
Geschichte,  p.  562  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  important  criticism  of 
Peine,  tc.s.  p.  266,  should  be  consulted.  Peine  points  out  that  even  in 
the  matter  of  language  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Synoptic 
text  has  been  subjected  to  any  Pauline  influence ;  many  of  its 
expressions  are  found  in  the  LXX.,  and  he  also  reminds  us  that 
H.  Holtzmann  regards  St.  Paul  as  dependent  upon  the  language  of  the 
Gospels,  which  had  exercised  a  great  influence  upon  him.  See  also 
P.  W.  Schmidt,  Geschichte  Jesu,  ii.  67  (1904);  Sturm,  u.s.  ii.  18. 


294     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

follow  this  claim  to  be  the  revealer  of  the  Father,  words 
which  have  touched  the  heart  of  humanity  as  no  words  of 
any  human  teacher  have  ever  touched  it,  words  which  in 
their  calm  and  beauty  evoked  the  wonder  and  admiration 
of  the  great  Unitarian  teacher  William  Channing,  and 
words  so  lofty  in  their  claim  and  grandeur  that  another 
great  Unitarian  teacher,  Dr.  Martineau,  refused  to  believe 
that  Jesus  in  His  humility  could  ever  have  spoken  them  : 
"  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  My  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn 
of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart,  and  ye  shall  find 
rest  for  your  souls."  And  we  are  still  asked  to  believe  that 
these  words  also  were  never  spoken  by  Christ  ;  that  they  are 
a  later  composition,  reminiscences  borrowed  from  Ecclesi- 
asticus  li.  or  other  sources,  and  united  in  St.  Matthew  with 
the  previous  sayings  derived  from  St.  Paul.  But  surely  this 
makes  a  demand  upon  our  credulity  which  is  insupportable, 
and  the  only  thing  which  affords  us  no  surprise  is  that  we  are 
called  upon  to  accept  this  origin  of  our  Lord's  sayings  by 
the  same  critic,  O.  Pfleiderer,  who  asks  us  to  believe  that 
the  matchless  stories  of  the  incarnation  and  infancy  were 
composed  from  St.  Paul's  words  to  the  Galatians,  iv.  4. 

It  is,  however,  no  wonder  that  the  most  acute  of  recent 
German  critics  should  remark  that  if  this  alleged  derivation 
of  our  Lord's  sayings  is  true,  we  are  face  to  face  with  a 
psychological  enigma  (Feine,  u.s.  p.  266).  Can  we  suppose 
for  a  moment  that  words  of  such  sublimity,  and  at  the  same 
time  of  such  humility,  could  have  been  composed  by  some 
unknown  Christian  out  of  scattered  sayings  from  a  pre- 
Christian  and  a  Christian  document,  from  a  combination  of 
the  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus  with  St.  Paul's  First  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians  ?  Even  if  we  suppose  that  our  Lord  had 
in  mind  the  words  of  another  Jesus,  the  son  of  Sirach,  there 
is  an  infinite  distance  between  personifying  Wisdom  and 
extolling   her   attributes,  and   presenting   oneself  in  human 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  295 

form  and  guise  as  the  rest  and  guidance  and  goal  of 
humanity.  "  Come  unto  me,"  so  Wisdom  had  said 
(Ecclesiasticus  xxiv.  19,  li.  23)  ;  but  Jesus  alone,  the  Son  of 
Man,  and  yet  fairer  than  the  sons  of  men,  could  add, 
"  And  I  will  give  you  rest."  The  fact  is  that  the  alleged 
dependencies  of  the  Gospels  in  Matt.  xi.  25,  Luke  x.  22, 
upon  Ecclesiasticus  are  very  superficial,  and  that  in  many 
respects  they  are  such  as  might  be  found  on  the  lips  of 
any  Jewish  speakers.  But  whilst  the  points  of  likeness  are 
present,  those  of  contrast  are  entirely  absent.  Jesus,  the  son 
of  Sirach,  for  example,  in  his  prayer  thanks  God  because 
He  has  hearkened  to  him  and  delivered  him  from  peril  ; 
our  Lord,  in  His  prayer,  thanks  the  Father  for  revealing 
to  babes  what  had  been  concealed  from  the  wise  and 
prudent.^ 

I  have  already  spoken  in  an  earlier  lecture  of  the  Abbe 
Loisy  and  of  his  refusal  to  admit  that  our  Lord  spoke  the 
words  before  us.  But  if  this  is  the  way  to  retain  the 
Catholic  faith,  viz.  by  giving  up  some  of  the  most  decisive 
sayings  of  our  Lord  about  Himself  and  His  relation  to  the 
Father,  it  may  be  a  short  and  easy,  but  it  is  surely,  none 
the  less,  a  very  precarious  method.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  not  only  does  Dr.  Harnack  admit  that  our  Lord  spoke 
the  words  in  question,  but  that  they  are  regarded  by  many 
"  scientific  "  critics  as  forming  part  of  that  collection  of 
discourses  which  may  have  come  to  us  from  St.  Matthew, 
and  that  more  than  one  representative  writer^  of  the  liberal 
school  of  theology  in  the  Roman  Church  refuses  to  follow 
the  Abb^  Loisy  in  the  rejection  of  a  passage  of  which 
Keim  long  ago  affirmed  that  there  is  no  more  violent 
criticism  than  that  which  Strauss  had  introduced  in  his 
repudiation  of  a  passage  so  strongly  attested. 

'  See  the  excellent  remarks  of  Lepin,  Jesus  Messie  et  Fils  de  Dieu, 
pp.  174-5  (1904). 

-  Cf.  the  valuable  book  of  M.  Lepin,  Jesus  Messte  et  Fils  de  Dieu^ 
1904,  with  Appendix  on  Loisy's  position,  pp.  251-79. 


296    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

On  the  other  hand,  how  easy  it  is  to  believe  that  those 
words  of  our  Lord  upon  which  we  have  been  dweUing  were 
known  to  St,  Paul,  and  that  in  his  exposition  of  the  true 
and  the  false  wisdom,  in  his  declaration  as  to  God's  method 
of  revealing  His  deep  things  to  men,  in  his  reproof  of 
pretentious  learning  and  sophistry,  he  was  reiterating  a  law 
of  God's  kingdom  which  he  had  learned  from  the  teaching 
of  Him  whose  mind  in  this  same  declaration  he  significantly 
claimed  to  possess  (i  Cor.  ii.  i6),  a  law  which  could  not  be 
broken,  that  the  things  hidden  from  the  wise  and  prudent 
were  in   God's  good   pleasure  revealed  unto  babes. 

And  the  words  in  the  Gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Luke  which  follow  upon  this  law,  which  tell  us  of  the 
reciprocal  knowledge  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  are  words, 
remember,  which  are  unlike  anything  else  in  the  Synoptic 
Gospels  ;  they  remind  us,  as  no  other  words  in  those  Gospels 
remind  us,  of  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.  They  have  been  justly 
called  "  an  aerolite  from  the  Johannean  heaven,"  and  they 
come  to  us  in  all  reasonable  probability  from  amongst  the 
earliest  materials  which  our  Evangelists  possessed.  And 
yet  we  are  still  asked  to  believe  that  such  words  as  these, 
so  unique  in  their  position,  so  profound  in  their  teaching, 
are  derived  from  some  obscure  Christian  scribe.  One  thing 
is  certain,  that  if  such  an  unknown  person  could  have 
invented  such  a  saying,  he  would  not  have  dared  to  place 
it  where  he  has  ;  the  aerolite  which  had  come  from  the 
Johannean  heaven  would  have  found  a  place,  not  in  the 
first  or  third   Gospel,  but  in   the  fourth. 

But  there  is  a  further  reason  which  has  been  urged  for 
the  likelihood  that  our  Lord's  sayings  which  we  are  con- 
sidering were  known  to  St.  Paul.  We  have  seen  how  fully 
the  Apostle  was  acquainted  with  the  various  traits  of  our 
Lord's  character.  Upon  two  of  these  he  specially  insists  in 
writing  to  the  Corinthian  Church,  when  he  beseeches  his  con- 
verts by  the  "  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ "  (2  Cor.  x.  i ). 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  297 

These  virtues  had  no  doubt  been  foretold  of  the 
Messianic  King  ;  but  St.  Paul  speaks  of  their  realisation  in 
Jesus  as  of  something  which  he  could  assume  as  well  known 
to  his  readers.  Our  Lord  Himself  had  spoken  of  the  meek 
as  the  inheritors  of  the  earth  ;  He  had  entered  Jerusalem  on 
Palm  Sunday  as  a  King,  but  yet  as  one  of  the  meek  of  the 
earth  (Matt.  xxi.  5),  and  He  had  referred  to  Himself  as 
"  meek  and  lowly  in  heart "  in  the  same  breath  in  which  He 
had  bidden  men  to  come  unto  Him  and  rest  (Matt.  xi.  29). 
It  is  not  surprising  that  a  picture  so  gracious  and  so  power- 
ful should  make  an  impression  upon  St.  Paul.  He,  too,  was 
strong  and  could  make  his  boast  in  the  Lord  ;  but  there 
were  also  times  when  he  could  best  appeal  to  the  meekness 
of  Christ,  and  when  he  could  use  of  himself,  as  he  does 
twice  in  this  Epistle  (2  Cor.  vii.  6,  x.  i),  the  same  word  which 
our  Lord  had  used  in  His  own  gracious  invitation,  "  I  am 
meek  and  lowly  of  heart."  ^ 

Side  by  side  with  this  picture,  St.  Paul,  we  may  well 
believe,  could  place  another,  drawn  also  from  the  life  and 
teaching  of  the  historical  Christ,  and  a  most  popular  and 
recent  Life  of  fesus  in  Germany  rightly  lays  stress  upon 
the  two  passages  (2  Cor.  x.  i  and  i  Cor.  xiii.),  and  sees 
in  the  latter  a  psalm  of  love,  one  of  the  most  costly  pearls 
of  the  New  Testament,  derived  from  the  picture  of  the 
historical  Christ.^ 

Many  other  parallels  more  or  less  close  have  been  drawn 
between  St.  Paul's  exhortations  in  these  Corinthian  Epistles 
and  the  teaching  of  the  Gospels.  But  it  is  time  to  pass  to 
those  cases  which  enable  us  to  see  the  distinction  which  the 

'  Dean  Bernard  in  Ex;positor's  Greek  Test.,  2  Cor.  x.  i ;  Feine,  u.s.  p. 
257 ;  Sturm,  u.s.  p.  21  ;  Weinel,  Paulus,  p.  245  ;  P.  W.  Schmidt, 
Geschichte  Jesus,  ii.  67.  Heinrici  thinks  that  the  words  in  2  Cor.  x.  i 
refer  to  Christ  in  His  exaltation,  but  at  the  same  time  he  fully  admits 
that  the  picture  of  the  exalted  Christ  cannot  be  separated  from  that 
of  the  historical  Christ. 

^  Furrer,  Leben  Jesu  Christi,  p.  15. 


298     TESTIMONY    OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Apostle  so  clearly  draws  in  writing  to  Corinth,  a  distinction 
so  important  for  our  subject,  between  decisions  made  on  his 
own  authority  and  those  which  he  makes  on  the  authority 
of  Christ. 

St.  Paul  is  dealing  with  the  great  moral  and  social 
question  of  marriage,  a  question  so  important  and  so  likely 
to  demand  attention  in  a  city  like  Corinth,  with  its  mixed 
population,  its  varied  nationalities,  and  its  thousand  incen- 
tives to  profligate  living. 

In  I  Cor.  vii.  lo  the  Apostle  writes,  "  But  unto  the 
married  I  give  charge  ;  yet  not  I,  but  the  Lord  "  ;  and  he  then 
proceeds  to  give  a  decision  which  is  in  exact  accord  with 
the  stringent  command  of  Christ,  a  command  which  in  all 
probability  represents  the  earliest  tradition  contained  in  St. 
Mark,  "  That  the  wife  depart  not  from  her  husband,  and 
that  the  husband  leave  not  his  wife."  The  word  which  the 
Apostle  uses  is  a  very  remarkable  one  :  "  I  give  charge,"  i.e., 
I  pass  on  the  order — the  potent  word  of  the  Lord.^ 

Whether  he  refers  to  the  words,  "  Whosoever  shall  put 
away  his  wife,  and  marry  another,  committeth  adultery 
against  her  "  (Mark  x.  ii),  or,  as  is  sometimes  thought,  to 
the  words  given  us  by  the  same  Evangelist,  as  by  St. 
Matthew,  "  What  God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put 
asunder"  (Mark  x.  9  ;  Matt.  xix.  6),  it  is  equally  certain  that 
he  regards  the  marriage  tie  as  indissoluble,  and  that  he 
refers  this  view  of  the  nature  of  marriages  to  a  categorical 
command  of  the  Lord. 

But  in  the  verses  which  follow  in  this  same  chapter  of  i 
Corinthians,  in  which  the  question  of  mixed  marriages  is  to 
be  decided,  marriages,  that  is,  with  regard  to  which  no 
decision  had  been  pronounced  by  Christ,  because  the  state 
of  things  which  they  involved  had  not  arisen  in  His  earthly 
ministry,  the  Apostle's  language  is  very  different :  "  But  to 
the  rest  say  I,  not  the  Lord  "  (verse  12).  So  again,  later  in  this 
'  See  Evans,  Speaker's  Commentary,  in  loco. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  299 

same  chapter,  when  another  social  question  arises  as  to  the 
marriage  of  daughters  living  at  home/  the  Apostle  is  again 
conscious  that  he  has  with  regard  to  such  cases  "  no  command 
from  the  Lord  ;  but,"  he  adds,  "  I  give  my  judgment  as  one 
that  hath  obtained  mercy  of  the  Lord,"  a  judgment  faithful 
and  marked  by  a  full  consciousness  of  my  responsibility,  the 
judgment  of  one  who  has  the  Spirit  of  God  (verse  40  ;  cf  xiv. 
'^y),  but  not  of  one  who  has  a  direct  command  from  Christ. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  see  that  in  i  Cor.  ix. 
14  St.  Paul  refers  to  a  command  of  the  Lord  in  relation  to 
another  question  which  arose  in  the  Church,  vis.  as  to  the 
maintenance  of  the   Apostles  by  the  Christian   community. 

And  here  St.  Paul  is  as  certain  as  in  regard  to  the 
question  of  marriage  and  the  nature  of  the  marriage  tie  that 
the  historical  Christ  had  spoken,  "  Even  so  did  the  Lord 
ordain  that  they  which  proclaim  the  Gospel  should  live  of 
the  Gospel  "  (i  Cor.  ix.  14).  The  word  which  he  uses  when 
he  says  that  the  Lord  "  ordained  "  is  the  same  word  which  is 
used  in  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  (xi.  i),  of  our  Lord  charging 
the  Twelve  ;  and  we  have  spoken  in  a  previous  lecture  of 
the  way  in  which  St.  Paul's  defence  of  his  Apostleship  (i 
Cor.  ix.  14)  reminds  us  of  the  words  of  our  Lord's  charge  to 
the  Seventy,  as  given  us  in  Luke  x.  7. 

So  strikingly,  indeed,  does  St.  Paul  introduce  his  "  com- 
mand of  the  Lord "  with  respect  to  marriage  in  contra- 
distinction to  his  own  "  opinion,"  that  Heinrici  (Feine,  p,  68) 
considered  that  the  Apostle  had  a  collection  of  sayings  of 
the   Lord  at  his  disposal. 

But  if  we  are  not  inclined  to  go  so  far  as  this,  yet  at  all 
events  St.  Paul's  attitude  shows  how  conscious  he  was  of 
"  the  living  voice  of  tradition,"  and  of  the  weight  attaching 
to  the  positive  decisions  of  his   Master.      And  as   we  look 

'  This  is  the  interpretation  of  the  passage  (i  Cor.  vii.  36  ff)  recently 
endorsed  by  the  authority  of  Von  DobschiitZj  Das  a;postolische  Zeitaltery 
P-  33  (1904)- 


300    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

back  upon  the  manner  in  which  he  was  able  to  refer  to  the 
words  of  the  Lord,  which  he  had  received  in  this  tradition, 
as  one  question  after  another  arose  in  the  Church  at  Corinth, 
whether  it  was  a  matter  relating  to  the  order  and  revision  of 
worship,  or  to  the  maintenance  of  the  clergy,  or  to  the  moral 
life  of  the  Christian  home,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  these 
occasions  were  exhaustive,  or  that  the  Apostle  was  not  in 
possession  of  a  further  knowledge  of  his  Master's  life  and 
teaching  from  which  he  could  have  drawn  had  occasion 
demanded.  It  is,  at  all  events,  not  without  interest  in  this 
connection  to  recall  that  this  Epistle  (i  Corinthians)  was  written 
by  St.  Paul  from  Ephesus,  and  that  it  was  the  elders  of  that 
same  Ephesian  Church  whom  the  Apostle  reminded  of  some 
other  words  of  the  Lord  when  he  wished  to  enforce  the 
practical  Christian  duty  of  labouring  for  the  help  of  the 
weak,  "  The  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how  He  Himself  said," 
(as  if  there  was  no  doubt  of  their  authenticity),  "  It  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 

Again  we  see  how  aptly  the  Apostle  was  able  to 
recommend  a  practical  duty  to  the  Church  by  a  direct 
reference  to  words  of  the  Lord. 

We  turn  in  conclusion  to  the  great  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection, the  evidence  of  which  is  so  specially  emphasised  in 
this  first  Corinthian  Epistle. 

Few  things  in  modern  criticism  are  more  astonishing  than 
the  stress  laid  by  such  a  writer  as  Dr.  Schmiedel  upon  the 
special  evidence  which  is  contained  in  this  Epistle.^  He 
insists  in  the  strongest  terms  upon  the  peculiar  opportunities 
which  St.  Paul  had  for  collecting  his  evidence,  and  he  also 
insists  that  even  if  other  portions  of  this  i  Corinthians  could 
be  shown  not  to  be  St.  Paul's,  yet  the  passage  in  i  Cor.  xv. 
1-4  would  still  stand  firm,  as  containing  one  of  the  earliest 
statements  of  Christian  tradition.  But  if  we  ask  why  Dr. 
Schmiedel  is  so  insistent,  the  answer  is  very  disappointing. 
'  Encycl.  Bibl.,  Art.  "  Resurrection,"  iv.  4057. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS         301 

In  the  first  place,  his  object  is  to  insist  that  St.  Paul  is 
giving  us  a  full  and  exhaustive  list  of  the  appearances  of  the 
risen  Lord.  But  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  St. 
Paul  is  doing  anything  of  the  kind.  It  is  very  easy  to  see 
a  definite  and  fitting  purpose  in  the  selection  which  he 
makes.  Let  us  confess,  if  you  will,  that  the  Apostle's 
object  is  apologetic,  that  he  wishes  to  adduce  evidence  which 
would  be  calculated  to  impress  the  minds  of  the  Corinthians.^ 
But,  if  so,  we  have  the  key  to  his  selection.  ( That  selection 
is,  so  to  speak,  official.  St.  Peter  and  the  Twelve  ;  James, 
the  head  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  ;  the  Apostles  in  a  body  ; 
his  own  testimony  in  full  agreement  with  that  of  the  Twelve, 
the  appeal  to  the  Five  Hundred,  most  of  whom  were  still 
alive,  who  not  only  might  be  questioned,  but  who  afforded, 
by  the  very  fact  of  their  existence,  a  proof  (as  O.  Holtzmann 
reminds  us)  that  St.  Paul  was  not  proclaiming  an  event  far 
removed  in   point  of  time.^  ) 

In  such  a  list  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that 
no  reference  is  made  to  the  testimony  of  the  women. 
Various  reasons  are  given  for  this.  Sometimes  it  is  urged 
that  women  were  not  admitted  as  witnesses  in  a  Jewish 
court  of  law,  or  that  as  women  were  at  a  discount  in  that 
age  their  witness  would  not  tell,  and  that  the  Apostle  feared 
that  an  appeal  to  such  testimony  would  only  produce  an 
unfavourable  impression.  But  let  us  bear  in  mind  the 
official  character  of  the  Apostle's  selection,  and  we  shall  see 
at  once  that  he  appeals  to  those  by  name  who  would  claim 
special  credit  in  the  Church,  and  that  it  would  be  nothing  to 

*  See  Rose,  Studies  in  the  Gospels,  pp.  270,  276  ;  V.  Bartlet,  Apostolic 
■^S^>  P-  5-  For  a  somewhat  different  metho  d  in  the  explanation  of  the 
appearances,  see  Milligan's  Resurrection  of  our  Lord,  p.  155. 

-  Schmiedel,  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  4057,  rejects  without  any  scruple 
Steck's  attempt  to  see  in  the  appearance  to  the  five  hundred  brethren  a 
modification  of  the  original  account  of  what  happened  at  Pentecost. 
Dobschiitz  has  recently  followed  Steck  in  a  more  positive  manner  ;  but 
Schmiedel's  reply  to  Steck  seems  equally  unanswerable  in  the  case  of 
Dobschiitz  :   "  the  two  accounts  are  totally  different." 


302     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  point  to  lay  stress  upon  the  testimony  of  women  whose 
names,  however  valued  elsewhere,  would  carry  little  or  no 
weight  in   Corinth. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that,  according  to  the  Gospel 
narrative,  the  disciples  did  not  believe  in  the  testimony  of 
the  women,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  their  testimony  failed 
to  convince  them.  In  the  same  way  we  may  account  for  the 
omission  in  St.  Paul's  list  of  our  Lord's  appearance  to  the 
two  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  although  it  is  im- 
possible, in  passing,  not  to  remark  upon  the  striking  un- 
designed coincidence  which  that  incident  supplies  between 
St.  Luke's  Gospel  and  this  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  St. 
Paul  tells  us  of  an  appearance  to  St.  Peter,  and  the  only 
mention  of  this  appearance  in  the  Gospels  is  in  the  words 
which  greeted  the  two  disciples  on  their  return  from 
Emmaus  :  "  The  Lord  is  risen  indeed,  and  hath  appeared 
unto  Simon  "  (Luke  xxiv.   34  ;    i    Cor.  xv.   5). 

In  a  famous  old  book  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Sherlock's 
Trial  of  the  Witnesses  of  the  Resurrection  of  fesiis,  the 
advocate  on  behalf  of  the  witnesses  points  out  how  the 
counsel  on  the  other  side  had  not  only  commented  adversely 
upon  the  evidence  of  the  women,  but  had  called  them  "  poor 
silly  women,  wherein  there  is  an  end  of  their  evidence." 
"  But,"  it  is  urged  in  reply,  "  suppose  the  women  to  be  wit- 
nesses, suppose  them  to  be  improper  ones,  yet  surely  the 
evidence  of  the  men  is  not  the  worse,  because  some  women 
happened  to  see  the  same  thing  which  they  saw  ;  and  if 
men  only  must  be  admitted,  of  them  we  have  enough  to 
establish  the  truth." 

In  the  next  place.  Dr.  Schmiedel  insists  upon  the  value 
of  St.  Paul's  testimony  in  i  Cor.  xv.  because  his  great 
object  is  to  show  that,  as  the  Apostle  uses  the  same  word 
for  the  appearance  of  our  Lord  to  him  on  the  way  to 
Damascus  as  he  uses  for  the  Easter  appearances  to  St. 
Peter,  St.  James,  and  others,  that  therefore  all  the  appear- 


EPISTLES   TO  THE   CORINTHIANS  303 

ances  are  equally  visionary.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
word  upon  which  Dr.  Schmiedel  lays  such  stress,  the  word 
uxjidr),  which  St.  Paul  uses,  is  by  no  means  to  be  limited  to 
visionary  appearances.  On  the  contrary,  according  to  its 
constant  use  in  the  New  Testament,  it  is  employed  of  persons 
and  of  things,  not  as  if  they  were  regarded  as  visionary 
appearances,  but  "  as  either  seen  or  supposed  to  be  seen 
in  their  reality."  In  one  passage,  indeed  (Acts  xvi.  9), 
the  word  is  used  of  a  vision  ;  but  we  know  this  because 
the  word  does  not  stand  alone,  but  another  word  denoting 
"  a  vision  "  is  associated  with  it,  so  as  to  intimate  to  the 
reader   that  only  a  vision   is  there   thought   of.^ 

It  is  quite  true  that  St.  Paul  speaks  once  of  the  appear- 
ance of  our  Lord  vouchsafed  to  him  on  the  way  to  Damascus 
as  a  vision  (Acts  xxvi.  19)  ;  but  here  again  it  is  noticeable 
that  the  word  which  the  Apostle  uses  is  by  no  means  limited 
to  appearances  which  would  be  described  as  visions  ;  e.g: 
in    Ecclesiasticus  xliii.  2    it  is    used   of  the   sun    "  when    it 

1  Dr.  Milligan,  The  Resurrection  of  our  Lord,  p.  155  ;  Dr.  Plummer, 
St.  Luke,  p.  558  ;  M.  Goguel,  V Afotre  Paul  et  Jesus-Christ,  p.  82 
(1904).  Dr.  H.  A.  Kennedy  rightly  remarks  that  "  the  process  of  super- 
physical  activity  in  the  existence  of  the  exalted  Christ  must  be  on  a 
different  level  from  that  which  belongs  to  His  followers,  just  because 
of  His  position  as  Kiiptoj  {St.  Paul's  Conce;ption  of  the  Last  Thi?zgs, 
p.  233).  He  also  remarks  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  far  we  can 
be  helped  in  representing  to  ourselves  St.  Paul's  conceptions  by  the 
narratives  of  the  appearances  of  Jesus  to  the  disciples  after  His 
resurrection.  .  .  .  The  descriptions  given  are  remarkable  for  their 
sobriety  and  restraint.  One  is  never  conscious  of  any  bizarre  element 
in  perusing  them.  Yet  we  find  nothing  parallel  to  them  in  the  rest  of 
the  New  Testament.  They  are  confined  to  our  Lord's  post-resurrection 
existence.  But  they  appear,  to  us,  in  not  a  few  points,  to  adjust  them 
selves  with  remarkable  accuracy  to  St.  Paul's  idea  of  the  awfia 
TTvevfiuTiKov  {ibid.,  pp.  232-3). 

These  remarks  maybe  commended  to  the  notice  of  Dr.  P.  W.  Schmidt, 
and  with  him  other  critics  of  the  same  school,  as  he  apparently  thinks 
that  he  has  only  to  quote  i  Cor.  xv.  50  for  a  proof  that  St.  Paul's  con- 
ception of  the  spiritual  body  is  in  flat  contradiction  with  St.  Luke's 
description  (xxiv.  39)  of  our  Lord's  Body  after  His  resurrection  (see 
his  recent  Geschichte  Jesu,  ii.  406). 


304    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

appeareth  "  ;  it  is  used  by  the  prophet  Malachi  of  the 
messenger  of  the  Lord  :  "  Who  shall  abide  when  he  ap- 
peareth ?  "  (Mai.  iii.  2). 

No  doubt  the  two  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus  (Luke 
xxiv.)  speak  of  the  manner  in  which  the  women  had 
claimed  to  have  seen  "  a  vision  of  angels,"  where  the  same 
word  is  used  (Luke  xxiv.  23),  but  it  is  quite  evident  that 
St.  Luke's  narrative  describes  the  appearance  of  our  Lord 
to  the  women  as  something  more  than  a  vision.  St.  Luke 
again  describes  the  people  as  saying  of  Zacharias  "  that  he 
had  seen  a  vision  (the  same  word)  in  the  Temple  "  (Luke  i. 
22)  ;  but  it  is  again  quite  evident  that  St.  Luke's  narrative 
describes  the  appearance  of  the  angel  to  Zacharias  as  some- 
thing more  than  a  vision.  Moreover,  it  is  always  well  to 
remember  that  St.  Luke  elsewhere  clearly  distinguishes 
between  visions  and  realities.  Of  St.  Peter,  e.^.,  Acts  xii.  9, 
we  read  that  he  knew  not,  after  his  release  from  prison, 
"  that  it  was  true  which  was  done  by  the  angel,  but  thought 
he  saw  a  vision."  The  words  at  least  show  us  that  St.  Luke 
was  able  to  distinguish  between  the  record  of  an  actual 
fact  and  a  vision. 

Moreover,  the  word  a)<f)0r)  is  not  the  only  word  which  is 
used  of  our  Lord's  appearances  after  His  resurrection. 
Another  word,  e.^:,  is  used  by  St.  Luke  in  Acts  i.  3 
{oTTTavoixevoq,  "  being  seen  "),  which  certainly  cannot  be  taken 
in  the  limited  sense  which  Schmiedel's  theory  would  require. 
The  word  is  only  found  in  this  one  passage  in  the  New 
Testament,  but  it  is  used  twice  in  the  Septuagint.  In  one 
place  (i  Kings  viii.  8)  it  occurs  in  the  description  of  the 
staves  of  the  ark,  the  ends  of  which  were  seen  from  the 
holy  place  before  the  oracle  ;  so  that  the  word  cannot  in  this 
place  denote  anything  but  an  actual  appearance  of  the  portion 
of  the  staves.  In  Tobit  xii.  19  it  is  used  of  the  angel 
Raphael,  and  here  it  is  actually  employed  in  distinction  to 
a  vision  ;  the  angel  assumes  a  human  form,  and  travels  as 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS  305 

the  guide  of  Tobit  ;  only  his  eating  and  drinking  were 
not  so  in  reality :  "  ye  did  see  a  vision "  (Tobit  xii.  19). 
It  would,  therefore,  seem  that  this  word  which  St.  Luke 
uses  again  enables  us  to  draw  a  contrast  between  an  actual 
reality  and  a  vision.  But  this  incident,  in  the  book  of  Tobit, 
strengthens  the  point  to  which  attention  was  drawn  in  an 
earlier  lecture,  as  it  again  helps  to  mark  the  contrast  between 
the  description  of  our  Gospels  as  to  our  Lord's  spiritual  body 
and  the  description  which  the  Jews  give  us  of  the  appear- 
ances of  angels.  The  angels,  e.g.,  who  visited  Abraham  are 
represented,  as  is  the  case  with  Raphael,  as  not  really  eating, 
but  only  making,  a  show  of  doing  so. 

And  yet  we  are  perpetually  told,  as,  e.g.,  by  Dr.  Percy 
Gardner  {A  Historic  View  of  the  N.T.,  p.  166),  that  the  tales 
of  our  Lord's  corporeal  resurrection  were  the  results  of  the 
experience  of  Christians,  results  moulded  by  the  beliefs  of 
the  time  as  to  the  nature  of  spirit  and  its  relations  to  a 
material  body.  But  whatever  these  results  were  moulded  by, 
they  were  certainly  diametrically  opposed,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  to  the  current  views  of  the  time.  And  in  opposition 
to  Dr.  Gardner's  bold  assertion,  we  may  turn  to  the  latest 
edition  of  his  Leben  Jesu  by  the  veteran  German  theologian 
Dr.  B.  Weiss,  vol.  ii.  561,  4th  edit,  in  which  he  points 
out  that  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  in  a  glorified  body,  as  it 
is  described  in  our  Gospels,  was  absolutely  strange  to  an 
age  which  only  knew  of  a  re-awakening  of  the  dead  to  an 
earthly  life,  or  of  the  continuous  existence  of  the  soul  beyond 
the  grave.^ 

1  See,  further,  Lecture  IX.,  and  the  references  there  given  ;  also 
Lecture  XXIV. 

The  present  writer  may  refer  to  the  Witness  of  the  E;pistles,  p.  370  ff, 
for  a  further  examination  of  the  resurrection  appearances  as  given  in 
our  Gospels  and  in  i  Cor.  xv.  The  remarkable  coincidence  between 
the  notice  in  i  Cor.  xv.  5  and  Luke  xxiv.  34  is  of  interest  from  this 
point  of  view.  But  it  is  very  unlikely  that  if  St.  Peter  played  the  part 
in  the  resurrection  history  which  modern  unbelief  still  assigns  to  him, 
as,  e.g.,  in  Schmiedel's  Art.  "  Resurrection,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  4084, 

20 


306    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

But  further ;  if  our  Lord's  appearances  are  to  be  regarded 
as  merely  visionary,  then  we  are  driven  to  believe  that  the 
accounts  of  the  appearances  which  are  given  in  our  Gospels 
are  fictitious  ;  they  are  so  "  materialistic  "  as  to  be  unworthy 
of  credit,  and  Schmiedel  would  dismiss  them  as"  unhistorical 
embellishments." 

But  where  is  the  genius  in  the  early  Christian  community 
who  could  have  invented  the  episode  of  the  two  travellers 
and  their  journey  to  Emmaus,  or  the  story  in  the  last  chapter 
of  St.  John's  Gospel  which  tells  us  of  our  Lord's  appearance 
to  His  disciples  on  the  Lake  of  Galilee  ?  These  conversa- 
tions between  the  divine  Lord  and  His  followers,  these 
wondrous  touches  by  which  He  manifested  Himself  to  His 
own,  these  searchings  of  heart  and  revelations  of  character 
which  stand  out  so  clearly  in  the  presence  of  Him  who 
knew  so  well  what  was  in  man — can  we  suppose  for  a 
moment  that  they  were  the  invention  of  a  few  unlettered 
peasants  who  had  nothing  whatever  in  their  own  current 
views  of  the  life  after  death  to  guide  them  in  drawing  such 
a  picture  ?  ^ 

Our  Lord's  appearances,  then,  as  they  are  narrated   in  the 

that  such  a  brief  and  incidental  notice  should  be  given  of  the  appear- 
ance to  the  Apostle  as  that  in  Luke,  I.e. 

Von  Dobschijtz  has  recently  made  a  bold  attempt  to  identify  the 
appearance  to  the  Five  Hundred  (i  Cor.  xv.  6)  with  the  coming  down 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  assembled  Church  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost. 
This  identification  is  scarcely  likely  to  gain  much  assent,  especially 
when  it  is  supported  by  maintaining  that  the  exalted  and  glorified 
Christ  is  identified  with  the  Spirit,  i.e.  an  indwelling  power  (Rom.  viii. 
9  ;  2  Cor.  iii.  i6  ;  cf.  Ostern  und Pfingsten,  p.  34  [1903]). 

'  The  Bishop  of  Exeter,  in  Critical  Questions,  p.  1 19,  forcibly  writes  : 
"  Do  not  the  sayings  of  the  risen  Lord  convince  us  that  they  come 
from  none  other  than  Himself?  Among  all  our  Lord's  words  that  live 
and  bear  living  fruit  among  His  followers  for  all  time,  such  words  as 
these  take  naturally,  and  of  themselves,  a  foremost  rank.  Brethren, 
these  are  real  words,  spoken,  if  ever  Christ  spoke  on  earth,  not  words 
transferred  from  earlier  reminiscences,  nor  invented  by  wit  of  man.  I 
do  not  know  how  it  may  be  with  all  of  you,  but  to  me  the  words  of  the 
risen  Saviour  carry  conviction  of  peculiar  force  and  cogency,  bear  on 
their  face  the  true  stamp  and  mark  of  their  origin." 


EPISTLES   TO  THE   CORINTHIANS  307 

Gospels,  demand  something  very  different  from  a  belief  in 
the  mere  continuance  of  the  spiritual  life  after  death,  as 
Harnack  and  his  followers  would  apparently  ask  us  to 
conclude.  And  that  St.  Paul  wished  to  insist  upon  a  very 
different  aspect  of  these  appearances,  no  less  than  the 
Evangelists,  is  plain  from  the  stress  which  he  lays  upon  the 
fact  that  Christ  was  buried,  and  that  He  rose  again 
the  third  day.  Here  is  the  real  and  sufficient  answer  to 
the  ridiculous  objection  that  Paul  does  not  mention  the 
empty  tomb.  If  he  does  not  actually  mention  it,  can  we 
doubt  that  he  presupposes  it  when  he  so  positively  states  ^ 
that  our  Lord  was  buried,  and  that  He  rose  again  the  third 
day  ?  ^  He  goes  out  of  his  way  to  introduce  the  words, 
"  and  that  He  was  buried,"  to  make  it  clear  that  the  same 
Person  who  was  laid  in  the  grave  rose  from  the  grave.^ 
He  does  not  even  say  that  Christ  "  was  buried  according 
to  the  Scriptures,"  but  he  introduces  the  burial  as  a  fact 
quite  apart  from  any  connection  of  it  with  Scriptural 
prophecy.^ 

^  See  Lecture  XL,  for  the  remarks  of  Dr.  Blass.  Dr.  P.  W. 
Schmidt,  in  his  recent  Geschichte  Jesu,  ii.  407,  apparently  thinks 
that  the  words  "and  that  He  was  buried  "  simply  emphasise  the  fact 
that  our  Lord  died ;  but  St.  Paul  frequently  speaks  of  our  Lord  dying 
and  rising  again  without  mentioning  His  burial,  and  he  evidently  does 
so  here  to  show  that  the  fact  of  His  burial  was  specially  a  part  of  the 
early  Christian  tradition  which  he  had  received.  No  one  has  insisted 
upon  the  empty  tomb  more  decisively  than  Von  Dobschiitz,  Ostern 
und  Pfingsten,  p.  15. 

^  Professor  J.  V.  Bartlet  well  points  out  that  the  explicit  statement 
"and  that  He  was  buried"  confirms  the  view  often  confidently 
challenged  that  the  empty  grave  was  an  element  in  the  original 
Apostolic    witness,    and    not    a    later    supplement    {A-postolic    Age, 

p.  4). 

3  "  The  run  of  the  sentences  ('  that  He  was  raised  on  the  third  day  .  .  . 
and  that  He  appeared  to  Cephas,  then  to  the  Twelve  ')  tends  to 
support  the  view  implied  in  our  Gospels  that  the  very  first  appearances 
were  on  the  day  of  resurrection  itself  (which,  apart  from  some  such 
manifestation,  could  hardly  be  dated  at  all),  and,  therefore,  in  Jerusalem 
not  in  Galilee,  as  some  eminent  critics  assert "  (J.  V.  Bartlet,  u.s. 
p.  6). 


308     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Nor  can  it  be  alleged  with  any  fairness  that  because  the 
Scriptures  had  foretold  it  the  statement  of  the  resurrec- 
tion on  the  third  day  was  at  once  credited.  Not  only  was 
there  nothing  in  the  Scriptures  to  explain  the  resurrection 
as  it  actually  took  place  according  to  our  accounts  of  it, 
but  the  passage  in  Hosea  vi.  2,  which  is  so  often  mentioned 
in  this  connection,  is  not  quoted  or  even  referred  to  in  the 
New  Testament  or  in  the  Fathers  with  any  application  to 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus.^ 

But  if  our  Lord  rose  again  on  the  third  day,  then  and 
then  only,  as  we  have  already  observed,  can  the  institution 
be  explained  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  as  the  special  day 
of  Christian  worship. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  significance  of  the  notice 
in  I  Cor.  xvi.  2  in  its  bearing  upon  this  subject  ;  and 
I  have  also  stated  that  modern  criticism  makes  curious 
expedients  to  get  rid  of  the  force  of  the  Apostle's 
language. 

Thus  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  as  the  Church  of 
Corinth  consisted  for  the  most  part  of  poor  people,  for 
many  of  them  the  last  or  the  first  day  of  the  week  was  pay- 
day ;  the  first  day,  therefore,  was  the  day  on  which  they 
could  most  easily  lay  by  something.^  But  the  distinguished 
writer  who  makes  this  conjecture  is  constrained  to  remind 
us  in  a  note  that  it  will  first  have  to  be  considered  whether 
weekly  payments  of  wages  were  usual,  and  also  which  day 
of  the  week  was  reckoned  as  the  first  in  the  civil  life  of 
Corinth.  And  not  only  so,  but  he  further  proceeds  to  com- 
ment upon  what  he  calls  the  valuable  indications  in  the 
"  We  "-sections  of  Acts,  to  which  we  have  already  referred  : 
"  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,  when  we  were  gathered 
together  (at  Troas)  to  break  bread  "  (Acts  xx.  7) ;  and  we 

'  Stanton,  Jeivish  and  the  Christian  Messiah,^.  38] ;  Rose,  Studies 
in  the  Gosj)els,  p.  ■271  ;  Loofs,  Die  Auferstehungsberichte,  p.  9. 
*  Deissmann,  Art.  "  Lord's  Day,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iii.  2813. 


EPISTLES   TO   THE   CORINTHIANS         3O9 

are  told  that  as  this  passage  is  from  the  pen  of  an  eye- 
witness, we  are  justified  in  regarding  it  as  affording  the  first 
faint  yet  unmistakable  trace  of  a  setting  apart  of  the  first 
day  of  the  week  by  Christians  for  purposes  of  public  worship. 
There  can  be  only  one  reason  why  the  first  day  of  the  week 
was  thus  honoured  :  "  Now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead, 
and  become  the  firstfruits  of  them  that  slept." 

On  the  ascension  of  our  Lord  and  its  significance  it  may 
be  well  to  dwell  in  the  next  lecture.  But  it  may  be  added 
here  that  another  event  which  is  so  closely  associated  with 
the  resurrection  and  ascension  in  the  hopes  and  beliefs  of 
the  early  Christians,  our  Lord's  return  to  judgment,  is 
emphasised  no  less  in  i  Corinthians  than  in  the  earliest  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistles. 

It  is  often  maintained  that  the  Apostle's  thoughts  had 
undergone  a  change  with  regard  to  our  Lord's  return  in 
the  interval  between  i  Thessalonians  and  the  two  Corinthian 
Epistles,  and  that  we  have  no  longer  the  imagery  or  the 
conceptions  of  his  earlier  writings. 

But  at  all  events  we  have  in  i  Corinthians  the  same 
thought  as  in  i  Thessalonians  of  "  the  day  of  the  Lord  " 
(i  Cor.  i.  8,  V.  5  ;  2  Cor.  i.  14);  we  have  the  same  thought 
of  the  association  of  the  saints  in  the  judgment  (i  Cor.  vi.  2)  ; 
we  have  the  same  word  used  of  Christ's  "  coming,"  viz.  His 
"  presence  "  (i  Cor.  xv.  23)  ;  we  have  the  sound  of  the  trumpet 
(i  Cor.  XV.  52),  and  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ  (2  Cor. 
V.  10).  And  the  overwhelming  thought  of  Christ,  as  the 
one  Judge  before  whom  he  and  all  men  must  appear,  was 
ever  present  to  the  Apostle  as  the  years  rolled  on.  We 
note  its  presence  and  its  influence  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  as  in  these  letters  to  Corinth  ;  it  meets  us  in  the 
Apostle's  last  words  to  Timothy,  "  I  charge  thee  in  the  sight 
of  God,  and  of  Christ  Jesus,  who  shall  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead,  and  by  His  appearing  and  His  kingdom  "  (2  Tim. 
iv.  i),  as  it  had  met  us  in  his  earliest  letter  to  the  Church  at 


3io    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO  CHRIST 

Thessalonica.  The  Apostle's  perspective  as  to  the  near 
approach  of  the  day  of  the  Lord  might  change  with  time, 
but  nothing  could  ever  change  his  abiding  conviction  as  to 
the  certainty  of  that  "  appearing  "  or  as  to  the  tremendous 
issues  which  were  involved  in  the  coming  and  the  presence 
of  the  Judge. 


LECTURE    XV 
EPISTLE    TO    THE   ROMANS 

THE  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  of  special  interest  in  our 
inquiry,  because  in  it  we  have  the  first  Epistle  (so 
far  as  we  know),  written  by  St.  Paul  to  a  Church  which  he 
had  not  founded.  If,  therefore,  we  find  him  referring  to 
facts  in  our  Lord's  life  and  to  points  in  His  teaching  as 
generally  known,  it  is  evident  that  the  Apostle  is  appealing 
to  a  widely  accepted  tradition,  and  not  simply  to  his  own 
individual  information. 

In  this  connection  we  may  note  the  remarkable  expres- 
sions in  which  St.  Paul  seems  to  imply  some  common  form 
of  teaching  which  the  Church  in  Rome  had  received.  Thus 
he  thanks  God  in  vi.  i6  that  these  Roman  converts  had 
become  obedient  to  that  form  or  pattern  of  teaching  where- 
unto  they  were  delivered,  and  with  this  passage  we  may 
connect  not  only  2  Tim.  i.  11,  but  also  the  many  passages 
in  which  reference  is  made  to  some  received  and  accepted 
tradition.  Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  some  of  these 
passages,^  but  it  is  well  to  be  reminded  of  their  import  and 
value. 

No  doubt  it  may  be  urged  that  the  Apostle  is  referring 
chiefly  to  moral  teaching,  and  one  of  the  most  elaborate  of 
German  books  on  the  Catechism  and  Creed  of  the  early 
Church  commences  with  drawing  out  the  manner  in  which 
this  passage  in  Romans  may  be  connected  with  the  catalogue 

^  See  Lecture  X. 
3" 


312     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

of  sins  which  the  Christian  was  to  avoid/  But  the  earhest 
Christian  tradition  must  have  consisted,  as  we  have  seen,  of 
certain  facts,  and  these  facts  may  not  unfairly  be  regarded 
as  constituting  part  of  the  "  form  "  of  teaching.  When  we 
examine  this  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  we  come  across  a  con- 
siderable body  of  evidence  calculated  to  show  that  St.  Paul's 
acquaintance  with  the  incidents  and  teaching  of  our  Lord's 
life  was  by  no  means  confined  to  a  knowledge  of  His  death 
and  resurrection. 

Without  laying  stress  upon  such  general  notices  as  that 
our  Lord  was  an  Israelite  according  to  the  flesh  (Rom.  ix.  3, 
cf  Gal.  iii.  16),  or,  with  Dr.  Zahn,  upon  such  prophetic 
utterances  as  Rom.  xv.  12,  "There  shall  be  the  root  of  Jesse, 
and  He  that  ariseth  to  rule  over  the  Gentiles,"  ^  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  St.  Paul  speaks  at  the  outset  of  our  Lord's 
descent  from  David  as  a  fact  so  well  recognised  that  it 
required  no  proof  or  explanation  from  him.  Reference  has 
already  been  made  to  the  importance  attached  by  such  a 
high  authority  as  Dr.  Dalman  to  this  statement  of  St.  Paul.^ 
In  this  connection  we  may  further  remember  that  the 
same  fact  seems  to  have  formed  at  a  very  early  date  a  part 
of  the  missionary  preaching  of  the  Apostle,  a  part  of  the 
Creed  of  the  Church,  if  we  compare  such  statements  as  those 
in  Acts  xiii.  22,  32-7,  and  2  Tim.  ii.  8. 

Now  it  has  been  recently  urged  that  St.  Paul  would  not 
have  accentuated  this  expression,  or  spoken  of  our  Lord  so 
emphatically  as  of  the  seed  of  David  and  of  Israel  "  according 
to  the  flesh,"  if  he  had  been  acquainted  with  the  fact  of 
the  supernatural  birth.  But  this  is  by  no  means  a  con- 
vincing argument. 

In  the  first  place  we  are  not  bound  to  suppose  that 
St.    Paul   would   have   emphasised   in    a   letter  the   peculiar 

'  Der  Katechismus  der  Urchristenheit,  p.  1 11(1903),  by  A.  Seeberg. 

*  Einleifung,  ii.  167. 

^  Cf.  Lecture  X.,  and  also  Neander,  Life  of  Christ,  E.T.  p.  20. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  313 

manner  of  our  Lord's  birth,  and  it  was  quite  sufficient  for 
the  purpose  which  he  had  in  hand  to  draw  attention  to  our 
Lord's  humanity  and  descent  from  the  chosen  race.  The 
acceptance  of  the  supernatural  birth  would  in  no  way  have 
interfered  with  a  belief  in  those  facts.  St.  Ignatius,  e.g., 
again  and  again  places  side  by  side  the  two  facts  of  our 
Lord's  descent  from  David  and  His  birth  of  a  Virgin,  and 
lays  stress  upon  His  humanity  as  Son  of  Mary. 

It  is  indeed  urged  that  Rom.  i.  3  distinctly  implies  the 
birth  of  our  Lord  from  a  human  father,  since  it  is  the  lineage 
of  Joseph,  and  not  Mary,  which  is  referred  to  David.  But 
not  only  is  it  maintained  by  many  able  writers  that  Mary  as 
well  as  Joseph  was  of  the  house  of  David,  but  it  would  also 
seem  that  even  if  we  admit  that  the  descent  from  David  is 
attested  by  the  Evangelists  only  with  reference  to  Joseph, 
yet  the  recognition  by  Joseph  of  the  Child  supernaturally 
born  to  Mary  gave  to  that  Child  all  the  legal  rights  of 
a  son. 

It  is  also  noticeable  that  this  particular  phrase  of  St.  Paul, 
"  made  of  the  seed  of  David,"  reminds  us  of  the  phrase  in 
Gal.  iv.  4.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  St.  Paul  does  not  say,  "  born 
of  the  seed  of  David,"  for  which  expression  another  verb 
might  have  been  used,  whilst  he  employs  a  verb  which  would 
denote  transition  from  one  state  of  being  to  another.^ 
Attention  has  been  called  in  a  previous  Lecture  (XII.) 
to  the  peculiar  wording  of  the  statement  in  Gal.  iv.  4,  and  it 
does  not  seem  an  unfair  inference  that  by  this  particular 
phraseology  St.  Paul  may  really  be  intimating  the  fact  that 
he  was  quite  aware  that  something  attached  to  the  birth  of 
our  Lord  which  demanded  an  unusual  mode  of  expression. 
But  without  insisting  or  dwelling  further  upon  this,  there 
is  another  passage  in  this  Epistle  to  the  Romans  which 
requires  to  be  considered  in  this  connection. 

*  Cf.,  e.g.,  E;ph.,  xviii.  2,  xx.  i  ;  Trail.,  ix.  i  ;  Rom.,  vii.  3. 
^  See  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans,  in  loco. 


314    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Although  St.  Paul  never  uses  the  expression  "  original 
sin,"  it  is  quite  certain  that  he  does  regard  every  man  as 
inheriting  a  taint  from  Adam's  nature  (Rom.  v.  12  ;  cf. 
I  Cor.  XV.  22),  and  that  according  to  him  all  had  sinned 
through  that  naturally  engendered  corruption. 

But  over  against  the  first  Adam  is  set  the  second  Adam, 
over  against  the  one  man  who  fell  and  involved  all  men 
in  his  fall  is  set  the  obedience  of  the  one  Man  who  knew 
no  sin,  the  Giver  of  grace  and  of  newness  of  life. 

Surely  there  must  have  been  something  in  that  sinless 
nature  which  differentiated  Him  who  bore  it  from  every 
man  who  was  naturally  engendered  of  the  offspring  of 
Adam.  What  was  it  ?  "  And  Mary  said  unto  the  angel. 
How  shall  this  be,  seeing  I  know  not  a  man  ?  "  And  the 
angel  answered,  and  said  unto  her,  "  The  Holy  Ghost  shall 
come  upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Most  High  shall 
overshadow  thee  :  wherefore  also  that  which  is  to  be  born 
shall  be  called  Holy,  the  Son  of  God "  (Luke  i.  34-5).^ 
These  words  occur,  let  us  never  forget,  in  the  Pauline 
Gospel,  the  Gospel  of  St.  Luke.  No  one  can  fail  to  see 
the  significance  of  the  fact  that  the  fullest  account  of  our 
Lord's  birth  is  found  in  the  Gospel  of  the  intimate  friend 
and  companion  of  St.  Paul.  And  if  St.  Luke  was  in 
Palestine,  in  Jerusalem,  as  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose, 
during  the  years  A.D.  57-8,^  can  we  suppose  for  a  moment 
that  he  would  fail  to  inquire  carefully  concerning  the 
beginnings  of  the  human  life  of  Him  who  was  born  in 
Bethlehem,  the  Saviour,  Christ  the  Lord  ? 

It  is  sometimes  urged  (as,  e.g.,  by  B.  Weiss  and  Wendt) 
that  this  sinlessness  of  Jesus  was  taken  for  granted  by  St. 
Paul,   since   he   saw    in    Him    the   risen    Saviour   who   took 

'  On  the  retention  of  these  words  the  present  writer  may  refer  to 
Our  Lord's  Virgin  Birth,  pp.  26,  94,  and  to  a  valuable  article  in  the 
Zeitschrift  fUr  die  neutest.  Wissenscha/f,  p.  91,  Heft.  i.  (1905),  by 
the  Rev.  G.  H.  Box. 

*  Cf.  Ramsay,  Was  Christ  born  at  Bethlehejn  ?  p.  88. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  315 

away  by  His  death  the  sin  of  the  world.^  But  before  we 
pass  on,  it  may  be  noted  that  St.  Paul  lays  stress  upon 
the  perfect  obedience  of  Jesus  in  this  Roman  Epistle 
(chapter  v.  19),  in  contrast  to  the  disobedience  of  the  first 
Adam,  and  this  seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that  the  Apostle 
had  learnt  at  least  something  of  the  life  of  perfect  sub- 
mission to  His  Father's  will  which  our  Lord  had  led. 

So,  too,  although  the  passage  (Rom.  viii.  3)  undoubtedly 
refers  to  the  death  of  Christ,  "  For  what  the  law  could 
not  do,  wherein  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God  sending 
His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  flesh  of  sin,  and  as  an 
offering  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh,"  it  is  well  to 
be  again  reminded  that  the  whole  context,  with  its  ex- 
hortation to  a  walk  of  moral  obedience,  seems  to  connect 
the  condemnation  of  sin  in  the  flesh  not  only  with  the 
death  of  the  Cross,  but  also  with  the  life  of  obedience 
which  was  perfected  in  that  final  offering. 

To  our  Lord's  public  life  and  ministry  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  bears  a  striking  testimony.  We  have  already 
seen  how  emphatically  it  testifies  to  St.  Paul's  claim  to 
miraculous  powers  (Rom.  xv.  19),  and  to  his  statement  as 
to  the  derivation  of  those  powers  directly  from  our  Lord. 

The  Apostle  again  testifies  in  this  same  Epistle  to  the 
fact  that  whilst  Christ  was  the  minister  of  circumcision 
(Rom.  XV.  8),  whilst  His  ministry  was  thus  confined  in  its 
range  to  Israel,  Christ  was  also  "  the  end  of  the  law  to 
every  one  that  believeth "  (Rom.  x.  4).  And  yet  it  is 
also  true  that  faith  does  not  make  void  the  law  ;  it  estab- 
lishes it  (cf.  Rom.  iii.  31  and  Matt.  v.  17). 

In  dwelling  upon  such  statements  as  to  our  Lord's 
purpose  in  His  ministry  and  activity,  we  have  another 
remarkable  utterance  of  the  Apostle  in  this  same   Epistle  : 

*  See,  e.g.,  B.  Weiss,  Das  Evangeliunt  und  die  Evangelien,  p.  10. 
2  For   this    point    cf.    especially   M.   Goguel,   L'A^dtre    Paul   et 
Jesus  Chris tus,  p.  74. 


3i6    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

"  I  know  and  am  persuaded  in  the  Lord  Jesus  that  nothing 
is  unclean  of  itself;  save  that  to  him  who  accounteth 
anything  to  be  unclean,  to  him  it  is  unclean  (Rom.  xiv.  14  ; 
cf.  Col.  ii.  21). 

If  we  cannot  find,  with  some  able  critics,  a  direct 
reference  in  these  words  to  our  Lord's  own  teaching, 
"  Not  that  which  entereth  into  the  mouth  defileth  the 
man;  but  that  which  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth,  this 
defileth  the  man "  (Matt.  xv.  11;  Mark  vii.  15,  19),  yet  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  St.  Paul's  declaration  exhibits  both 
in  spirit  and  in  the  letter  a  remarkable  likeness  to  our 
Lord's  words  in  the  Gospels.  And  we  see  how  the  great 
principle  for  which  St.  Paul  so  zealously  contended  thus 
carries  us  back  to  a  decision  of  the  historical  Christ.  At 
all  events,  the  Apostle  "  knows  and  is  persuaded  in  the 
Lord  Jesus,"  and  he  must  at  least  have  felt  confidence 
that  no  saying  of  the  historical  Christ  could  be  quoted 
against  him.^ 

How  closely  the  Apostle  had  caught  the  spirit  of  our 
Lord's  teaching,  even  if  he  had  not  known  the  words  of 
His  discourses,  we  may  plainly  see  from  other  instances. 

"  The  kingdom  of  God,"  e.g.,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
"  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy 
in  the  Holy  Ghost"  (xiv.  17).  And  we  need  not  look 
further  than  the  Beatitudes  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  to 
see  how  closely  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  are  associated 
together  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  to  God's  kingdom. 
Or  if  we  compare  this  same  verse  in  the  Romans  with 
another  familiar  utterance  in  the  same  Sermon,  "  But  seek 
ye  first  His  kingdom  and  His  righteousness  "  (Matt.  vi.  33), 
we  are  again  sensible  of  the  similarity.  In  this  same 
practical  part  of  the  Epistle  we  trace  other  reminiscences 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  at  least  a  constant 
reiteration  of  its  spirit. 

'  Titius,  U.S.  p.  14;  Peine,  u.s.  p.  258. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  317 

For  example,  when  Paul  bids  his  converts  to  "  Bless 
them  that  persecute  you,  bless  and  curse  not  "  (Rom.  xii. 
14),  our  thoughts  carry  us  back  to  the  familiar  words, 
"  Love  your  enemies,  and  pray  for  those  that  persecute 
you "  (Matt.  v.  44),  and  the  whole  context  of  the  verse 
in  Romans  expresses  the  spirit  of  the  same  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  So  again  the  repeated  exhortations  in  this 
same  practical  part  of  the  Epistle,  e.g.  Rom.  xiv.  4,  10,  13, 
against  judging  our  brethren,  or  setting  at  nought  our 
brethren,  remind  us  of  the  familiar  and  emphatic  command, 
"  Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged,  and  condemn  not,  and 
ye  shall  not  be  condemned"  (Matt.  vii.  i  ;  Luke  vi.  37). 

In  close  juxtaposition  to  the  bidding  not  to  judge  one 
another  any  more,  St.  Paul  exhorts  that  no  man  put  a 
stumbling-block  in  his  brother's  way  or  an  occasion  of 
falling  (Rom.  xiv.  13,  21)  ;  and  our  thoughts  at  once  recur  to 
Matt,  xviii.  6-y  :  "  Whoso  shall  cause  one  of  these  little  ones 
which  believe  on  Me  to  stumble,  it  is  profitable  for  him  that  a 
great  millstone  should  be  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he 
should  be  sunk  in  the  depth  of  the  sea.  Woe  unto  the  world 
because  of  occasions  of  stumbling  !  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
the  occasions  come  ;  but  woe  to  that  man  through  whom 
the  occasion  cometh  !  "  We  recall,  in  passing,  how  the  same 
spirit,  the  same  teaching,  is  evident  in  the  two  Corinthian 
Epistles.  It  is  heard  in  the  vehement  assertion,  "  Wherefore 
if  meat  make  my  brother  to  stumble,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  for 
evermore,  lest  I  make  my  brother  to  stumble  "  (i  Cor.  viii.  13)  ; 
it  is  heard  in  the  indignant  and  yet  pathetic  appeal,  "  Who 
is  weak,  and  I  am  not  weak  ?  who  is  made  to  stumble,  and 
I  burn  not  ?  "  (2  Cor.  xi.  29). 

As,  in  fact,  we  read  St.  Paul's  plea  for  considerate 
treatment  of  our  brethren  throughout  this  practical  part  of 
his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  we  cease  to  feel  surprised  that  his 
teaching  should  be  summed  up  in  words  which  again  carry 
us  back  to  our  Lord's  teaching  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 


3i8     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

"  Owe  no  man  anything,  but  to  love  one  another  "  (Rom. 
xii.  8  ;  cf.  Gal.  v.  14  ;  cf.  also  Mark  xii.  28). 

But  whilst  the  Apostle  thus  reminds  his  converts  of  their 
social  duties  in  words  which  are  so  manifestly  in  agreement 
with  the  mind  of  the  historical  Christ,  he  is  not  forgetful  of 
duties  imperative  upon  them  as  members  of  a  state,  as  the 
citizens  of  an  empire :  "  Render  to  all  their  dues,"  "  Let 
every  soul  be  subject  to  the  higher  powers,  for  there  is  no 
power  but  of  God  :  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God," 
"  Ye  must  needs  be  in  subjection  not  only  because  of  the 
wrath,  but  also  for  conscience'  sake  "  (Rom.  xiii.  i,  5,  y)} 
Such  exhortations,  even  if  they  do  not  presuppose,  as  many 
able  critics  have  maintained,  St.  Paul's  acquaintance  with 
our  Lord's  own  decision,  "  Render  unto  Cssar  the  things 
that  are  Csesar's,  and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's  " 
(Matt.  xxii.  21),  are  at  least  in  striking  harmony  and  accord- 
ance with  it.  And  this  accordance  is  admitted  by  critics 
who  differ  widely  in  many  respects. 

To  another  familiar  part  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
St.  Paul  makes  no  direct  reference  ;  but  just  as  in  Gal.  iv.  6, 
so  in  Rom.  viii.  15,  we  may  again  have  an  echo  of  the 
utterance  with  which  our  Lord  had  taught  His  disciples  to 
draw  nigh  unto  God,  Abba,  Father  :  "  For  ye  received  not 
the  spirit  of  bondage  again  unto  fear  ;  but  ye  received  the 
spirit  of  adoption  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father." 

And  just  as  in  i  Corinthians  we  found  passages  which 
reminded  us  of  our  Lord's  words  of  commission  to  the 
Twelve  (cf  ix.  14),  so  it  is  quite  possible  to  note,  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  passages  which  remind  us  of  the 
words  and  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  His  exhortations  to  His 
chosen  friends.  "  Be  ye  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as 
doves,"  we  read  in  our  Lord's  charge  to  the  Twelve  ;  and  in 

'  These  points  are  admirably  emphasised  by  Titius,  u.s.  p.  13  ;  and 
amongst  the  most  recent  critics  it  may  be  noted  that  P.  W.  Schmidt, 
Geschichte  Jesu,  ii.  67-8,  draws  attention  to  them. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  319 

his  final  exhortation  to  the  Roman  brethren  St.  Paul  writes, 
"  T  would  have  you  wise  unto  that  which  is  good,  and 
simple  unto  that  which  is  evil,"  the  word  for  "  simple " 
occurring  in  the  New  Testament  only  in  St.  Paul's  writings 
(Phil.  ii.  15)  and  in  the  passage  St.  Matt.  x.  16.  But 
here,  in  spite  of  the  agreement  of  several  writers  in  the 
probability  of  a  reference  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Gospels,  there 
is  no  need  to  strain  the  point  too  far. 

So,  again,  in  the  exhortation  upon  which  such  stress  is 
laid  in  Rom.  xii.  18  and  xiv.  19  as  to  peaceful  living  and 
peaceful  dealing,  we  may  find  a  parallel  in  the  words  of 
Jesus,  "  Be  at  peace  with  one  another  "  (Mark  ix.  50).  Such 
a  charge  might,  no  doubt,  seem  to  be  a  very  general  one 
and  to  be  couched  in  very  general  language.  Three  times, 
it  is  true,  the  same  charge  occurs  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles — once 
when  he  is  writing  to  the  Thessalonians,  once  to  the 
Corinthians,  and  now  again  to  the  Romans  ;  but  still  the 
fact  remains  that  the  charge,  thus  familiar  in  St.  Paul,  is 
found  only  once  elsewhere  in  the  New  Testament  and  that  in 
our  Lord's  words  to  His  disciples  just  quoted  from  St.  Mark. 

In  our  Lord's  final  discourse  to  His  Apostles  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  one  remarkable  expression,  "  And  Jerusalem 
shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  until  the  times  of  the 
Gentiles  be  fulfilled "  (Luke  xxi.  24),  reminds  us  of  St. 
Paul's  language  in  this  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  where  he 
speaks  of  a  hardening  in  part  which  had  befallen  Israel, 
"  Until  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in "  (xi.  25). 
It  will  be  noticed  that  the  likeness  of  phraseology  occurs  in 
the  Gospel  of  St.  Paul's  friend  and  companion.  It  is,  of 
course,  quite  possible  that  St.  Luke's  phrase  is  simply  his 
equivalent  for  St.  Matthew's  and  St.  Mark's  statements  in 
the  same  discourse,  that  the  Gospel  must  first  be  preached 
among  all  the  nations  before  the  end  comes  (Matt.  xxiv.  14  ; 
Mark  xiii.  10)  ;  but  we  are  by  no  means  shut  up  to  this 
interpretation  of  his  words. 


320    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

St.  Paul,  in  the  part  of  the  Epistle  with  which  we  are 
now  concerned,  is  filled  with  a  great  hope  for  the  future  of 
his  people.  The  hardening  is  only  partial  ;  it  would  have  its 
limit  when  all  nations  of  the  world  enter  into  the  kingdom, 
when,  in  other  words,  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  are  fulfilled. 
This  interpretation  of  the  words  would  at  least  be  in 
harmony  with  the  universalism  which  is  so  characteristic  of 
St.  Luke's  Gospel  ;  and  if  it  be  urged  that  St.  Paul's  teaching, 
on  this  interpretation,  differs  from  that  of  Jesus,  since  our 
Lord  speaks  of  the  rejection  of  Israel,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  there  are  passages  in  which  He  also  speaks  of  the 
return  of  Israel  to  their  Messiah.  Thus  in  St.  Matthew  and 
St.  Mark  our  Lord  says  to  the  rebellious  city,  as  He  passed 
from  the  Temple  for  the  last  time  before  His  passion,  "  Ye 
shall  not  see  Me  until  ye  shall  say,  Blessed  is  He  that 
Cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  "  (Matt,  xxiii.  39  ;  Luke 
xiii.  35).' 

But  without  dwelling  longer  upon  this  significant  likeness 
in  phraseology  between  St.  Luke  and  St.  Paul,  in  connection 
with  our  Lord's  final  utterances,  let  us  ask  if  there  are  any 
indications  that  the  Passion  and  its  details  were  known  to 
St.  Paul  and  to  the  Roman  Christians  he  was  addressing. 

It  is  quite  true  that  strong  objections  have  been  raised 
against  citing  Rom.  xv.  3,  "  For  Christ  also  pleased  not 
Himself;  but,  as  it  is  written,  The  reproaches  of  them  that 
reproached  thee  fell  upon  me,"  as  any  definite  reference  by 
St.  Paul  to  the  Passion  history  ;  and  it  is  urged  that  the 
Apostle  simply  makes  a  general  reference  to  an  Old  Testament 
passage.  But  we  surely  ought  to  consider,  first,  that  we 
have  already  had  proof  that  St.  Paul  was  closely  acquainted 
with  the  incidents  of  the  Passion  (i  Cor.  v.  7)  and  as  he 
presupposes  an  acquaintance  with  such  facts  on  the  part  of 
his  converts  in  Corinth,  so  here,  in  quoting  an  Old  Testament 
prophecy  to  the  Roman  Christians,  he  presupposes  an 
2  See  the  remarks  of  Feine  in  this  connection,  u.s.  p.  262. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  321 

acquaintance  on  the  part  of  readers  whom  he  had  never 
seen,  with  a  marked  feature  in  our  Lord's  sufferings.  But 
if  he  had  had  no  ground  for  presupposing  this  knowledge, 
if  he  had  not  been  aware  that  his  readers  would  at  once 
recognise  its  fulfilment,  he  would  scarcely  have  quoted 
with  such  emphasis  an  Old  Testament  prophecy.  Other 
Old  Testament  passages  might  have  enforced  the  general 
lesson  of  our  Lord's  unselfishness,  as,  e.g.,  Ps.  xl.  8,  "  Lo,  I 
come  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God."  But  the  passage  before  us 
contains  what  certainly  looks  like  a  special  reference  to  the 
received  accounts  of  the  bitter  mocking  and  reviling  in  those 
last  sad  hours  of  our  Lord's  earthly  life. 

But  if  we  are  at  all  justified  in  maintaining  that  St.  Paul 
takes  for  granted  in  this  Epistle  and  in  i  Corinthians  the 
details  connected  with  the  death  of  our  Lord,  we  can  have 
no  doubt  whatever  as  to  his  acquaintance  with  the  fact  of 
our  Lord's  burial,  "  We  were  buried  with  Him  through 
baptism  into  death  "  (Rom.  vi.  4).  It  is,  of  course,  easy  to 
say  that  burial  would  always  be  regarded  as  the  natural 
sequence  of  death.  But,  as  we  pointed  out  in  the  last 
lecture,  the  stress  thus  laid  upon  our  Lord's  burial  in 
relation  to  Christian  baptism  is  significant  when  we  remember 
that  St.  Paul  had  already  referred  to  the  same  fact  as  part 
of  the  Christian  tradition  which  he  had  himself  received 
(i  Cor.  XV.  3).  The  burial  of  our  Lord  was  a  fact  so  un- 
doubted, and  the  symbolism  of  Christian  baptism  was  so 
bound  up  with  it,  that  the  Apostle  asks  how  it  was  possible 
that  any  well-instructed  Christian  could  be  unaware  either 
of  the  fact  or  of  its  import.  "  Or,  are  ye  ignorant  ?  "  he 
asks  in  surprise  (Rom.  vi.  3).  There  may  not  be  valid 
grounds  for  referring  the  Apostle's  words  to  an  Agraphon  of 
our  Lord,  or  even  for  deriving  them  from  such  passages 
as  Mark  x.  38,  Matt.  xx.  22  ;  but  it  may  at  least  be 
inferred  that  St.  Paul  was  alluding  to  some  generally 
received  Christian  teaching.     Here,  again,  as  Feine  reminds 

21 


322     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

us,  we  see  the  fundamental  place  which  baptism  held  in 
the  teaching  of  the  Church.  And  St.  Paul  must  have  been 
sure  of  this,  or  he  would  not  have  so  confidently  appealed 
to  the  knowledge  of  his  readers  with  regard  to  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  sacrament.  If  the  Christ  who  had  lain  in 
His  grave  was  also  the  risen  Christ,  then  we  can  see  how 
the  Apostle  could  express  himself  as  he  does. 

Closely  united  with  the  burial  is  the  resurrection  ;  but 
this  resurrection  is  not  regarded  as  only  spiritual  :  Jesus 
was  raised  from  the  dead.  St.  Paul  does  not  simply  say 
that  Jesus  lives,  but  that  He  was  raised  by  the  glory  of 
the  Father.  I  have  already  spoken  at  some  length  of  the 
nature  of  this  resurrection  of  our  Lord  (see  Lecture  IX. 
and  XIV.),  and  there  is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  it  further 
at  present  except  to  notice  that  St.  Paul's  phrase,  "  raised 
from  the  dead,"  or  some  precisely  similar  expression,  is  found 
in  all  the  accepted  Epistles  of  the  Apostle,  and  that  it  also 
finds  a  significant  place  in  his  earliest,  no  less  than  in  his 
latest,  Epistle. 

An  attempt  has  been  very  recently  made  to  distinguish 
between  the  fact  of  the  resurrection  and  the  manner  of 
our  Lord's  appearances  afterwards  to  His  disciples.  The 
former,  it  is  said,  is  asserted  in  the  Creeds  ;  the  latter  is  not 
described  in  them. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  the  Creeds  are  a  summary  of  facts, 
not  a  description  of  them  ;  and,  secondly,  the  Gospels  de- 
scribe fully  enough  the  manner  of  our  Lord's  appearances, 
and  that  description  comes  to  us  most  fully  from  the  Gospel 
of  St.  Paul's  intimate  friend.  Moreover,  it  is,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  description  which  could  not  have  been  based  upon 
any  current  Jewish  expectations  with  regard  to  the 
resurrection. 

But  it  is  important  to  notice  that  in  this  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  the  ascension  is  most  distinctly  implied,  even  if  it 
is  not  directly  asserted  or  described  :  "  Who  shall  lay  any- 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  323 

thing  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  ?  It  is  God  that  justifieth  ; 
who  is  he  that  shall  condemn  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died  ;  yea, 
rather,  that  was  raised  from  the  dead,  who  is  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession  for  us  "  (viii.  34). 
We  cannot  fail  to  see  how  much  is  contained  and  implied 
in  the  statements  of  this  one  verse. 

But  Dr.  Harnack  must  needs  find  some  other  implication 
in  the  Apostle's  language,  and  he  lays  stress  upon  the  fact 
that  resurrection  and  sitting  at  the  right  hand  are  here 
regarded  as  one  act,  without  any  mention  of  ascension.  So, 
too,  Schmiedel  regards  this  passage  as  placing  the  sitting 
at  the  right  hand  of  God  immediately  after  the  resurrection. 
But  the  answer  is  that  the  ascension  is  implied  in  the 
session,  and  that  the  verb  used  in  the  phrase  "  raised  from  the 
dead  "  must  be  interpreted  in  a  way  altogether  contrary  to  its 
New  Testament  usage,  if  we  take  it  to  mean  any  exaltation 
beyond  the  mere  recall  from  death.^  There  is  much  in  the 
Apostle's  language,  in  his  earliest  as  in  his  latest  Epistles, 
which  seems  to  presuppose  our  Lord's  ascension,  and  we 
shall  have  occasion  to  dwell  upon  it  further  in  our  con- 
sideration of  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians.  For  the  present 
it  is  sufficient  to  say  that,  as  we  find  it  difficult  to  believe 
that  St.  Paul  was  unacquainted  with  the  fact  of  our  Lord's 
Virgin  birth,  in  face  of  the  account  given  in  St.  Luke's 
Gospel,  so  we  find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  he  was  un- 
acquainted with  the  fact  of  our  Lord's  ascension,  in  face 
of  the  account  given  us  in  the  opening  verses  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles. 

The  author  of  Supernatural  Religion,  in   his  eagerness  to 
find  some  story  which  may  present  a  parallel  to  the  belief  in 

'  Dr.  Swete,  The  Apostles'  Creed,  pp.  67-8.  In  his  Einleitung, 
ii.  168,  Dr.  Zahn  gives  a  useful  series  of  passages  which  refer  to 
our  Lord's  exaltation  to  heaven  and  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  e.g. 
Rom.  viii.  34;  Eph.  i.  20;  Col.  iii.  i;  Phil.  ii.  9 ;  i  Tim.  iii.  16, 
amongst  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  The  remarks  of  M.  Goguel  in  this 
connection  are  disappointing,  u.s.  p.  84 ;  see  also  Lecture  XXIV. 


324    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

our  Lord's  ascension,  refers  again,  in  his  popular  edition,  to 
the  disappearance  of  Moses,  as  it  is  described  for  us  by 
Josephus.  Of  course,  it  is  presupposed  that  the  writer  of 
the  Acts  was  acquainted  with  and  dependent  upon  Josephus. 
It  must  suffice  to  say,  in  passing,  that  this  assumption  fails 
to  commend  itself  to  many  distinguished  critics  of  the  first 
rank  ;  that  it  is  highly  improbable  that  St.  Luke  would,  so 
to  speak,  have  gone  to  school  to  Josephus,  and  that,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  highly  probable  that  there  would  be  a 
certain  similarity  between  two  writers  in  dealing  with  the 
same  historical  period  and  the  same  historical  events. 

In  the  account  which  Josephus  gives  of  the  end  of  Moses, 
he  states  that,  although  Moses  wrote  in  the  holy  books  that 
he  died,  lest  they  should  say  that  he  went  to  God,  this  was 
not  really  his  end.  As  he  went  to  the  place  where  he 
was  to  vanish  out  of  their  sight,  all  followed  weeping.  After 
reaching  the  Mount  Abarim,  he  dismissed  the  elders,  and  as 
he  was  about  to  embrace  Eleazar,  the  high-priest,  and 
Joshua,  a  cloud  suddenly  stood  over  him,  and  he  disappeared 
in  a  certain  valley  (Jos.,  Ant.,  iv.  8,  48). 

Now  it  is  no  doubt  true  enough  that  in  the  Acts  Moses 
is  a  favourite  representative  of  the  Messiah  ;  but  if  we  grant 
this  much  to  the  author  of  Supernatural  Religion,  we  cannot 
grant  him  a  parallel  of  any  weight  whatever  to  the  ascen- 
sion in  the  instance  before  us.  Moses  is  represented  by 
Josephus  as  disappearing  without  dying  the  natural  death  of 
all  men,  whilst  our  Lord's  death  is  emphasised  by  every 
New  Testament  writer  as  an  undoubted  and  indisputable 
fact.  The  difference  is  crucial.  In  the  one  case  we  have  a 
vague  and  shadowy  disappearance  ;  in  the  other,  a  shameful 
death,  and  its  sequel,  a  glorious  resurrection  and  ascension. 
It  will  be  noted  that  the  other  alleged  parallels  of  Enoch 
and  Elijah  both  fail,  for  the  same  crucial  reason.' 

'  On  Pfleiderer's  recent  attempts  {Early  Christiatt   Conception  of 
Christ,  p.  107)  at  comparisons  between  Greek  and  pagan  myths  and 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  325 

But  Dr.  Schmiedel  has  also  a  comparatively  short  and 
easy  method  for  dismissing  the  evidence  for  the  ascension. 
He  not  only  speaks  of  the  silence  of  the  New  Testament 
writers  as  to  the  event,  which  is  making  a  very  large  and  quite 
an  unjust  assertion  ;  but  when  he  comes  face  to  face  with  the 
account  given  in  Acts  i.,  he  tells  us  that  this  account,  which 
he  is  obliged  to  get  rid  of,  is  a  piece  of  information  which  did 
not  become  known  to  the  compiler  of  Acts  until  late  in  life.^ 
In  the  first  place,  however,  there  is  nothing  strange  in  the  fact 
that  St.  Luke,  in  the  close  of  his  Gospel,  should  have  made 
a  brief  reference  to  our  Lord's  parting  from  His  disciples, 
and  that  he  should  have  given  a  fuller  and  more  circum- 
stantial account  of  that  same  event  in  his  second  and  later 
book. 

But  it  does  not  follow  that  the  longer  or  the  later  account 
should  be  dismissed  as  untrustworthy  and  fictitious.  Pro- 
fessor Zockler,  in  his  Art.  "  Jesus  Christus,"  Herzog's  Realen- 
cyclopddie,  gives  us  more  than  one  instance  of  the  way  in 
which  a  writer  in  the  ancient  world  would  give  a  twofold 
account  of  the  same  event,  one  brief,  the  other  longer  and 
more  circumstantial.  And  he  instances  the  manner  in 
which  Josephus  closes  one  book  of  his  Antiquities,  viz.  Book 
xvii.,  with  a  brief  reference  to  the  sending  of  Quirinius  to 
Syria  and  Palestine,  and  then  opens  the  succeeding  book 
(xviii.)  with  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  same  incident. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  remarkable  consensus  of  opinion 
(and  some  very  advanced  critics  might  be  named  as  support- 
ing it — Schmiedel  himself,  amongst  others)  that  the  early 
addresses  of  St.  Peter  in  the  Acts  must  have  been  derived 
from  some  primitive  Christian  document.  But  if  St.  Luke's 
information  was  so  good  for  these  addresses,  why  should  it  not 
have  been  equally  good  for  such  an  event  as  the  ascension  ? 

our   Lord's   ascension,  see  the  remarks   of  Westcott,    Gospel  of  the 
Resurrection,  p.  116,  and  The  Gospel  of  Life,^^^.  156,  252  ;  The  Inter- 
preter, May,  1905  ;  and  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  p.  397  ff. 
'  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv.  4059,  Art.  "Resurrection." 


326    TESTIMONY  OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

At  least  the  narrative  in  the  Acts  does  not  look  like  an 
invention :  "  Lord,  dost  Thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom 
to  Israel  ?  "  (Acts  i.  6).  Such  a  question  reveals  not  only 
the  earthly  and  the  national  character  of  the  hopes  which 
the  Twelve  still  entertained,  but  we  may  well  say  that  it  was 
of  too  primitive  a  character  to  suppose  it  to  be  the  invention 
of  a  later  generation/  In  addition  to  all  this,  we  must 
remember  that  it  is  quite  possible,  as  Dr.  Chase  has  urged, 
that  St.  Luke  may  have  met  St.  Peter  in  Rome — an  im- 
portant point,  he  adds,  for  the  criticism  of  the  third  Gospel 
and  the  Acts. 

I  will  only  add  that  two  other  arguments  to  which  Dr. 
Schmiedel  attaches  great  importance  were  anticipated  and 
refuted  some  ten  years  ago  (1894)  in  Dr.  Swete's  excellent 
book  on  The  Apostles^  Creed.  Let  us  refer  to  one  of  them 
to-day.  It  is  a  good  instance  of  the  way  in  which  people 
who  attack  the  Christian  faith  airily  repeat  the  same 
objection,  as  if  they  had  made  some  great  discovery. 

Dr.  Schmiedel  declares  that  the  fact  of  the  ascension 
ought,  if  known,  to  have  been  mentioned  by  St.  Paul  in 
I  Cor,  XV.  4-8,  where  he  lays  stress  upon  two  facts  of  the 
common  Christian  tradition,  the  death  and  the  resurrection  of 
our  Lord.  But  one  would  have  thought  that  the  veriest  tyro 
in  New  Testament  criticism  would  have  asked.  What  was  St. 
Paul's  purpose  in  writing  i  Cor.  xv.  ?  To  establish  the  truth 
of  the  resurrection  ;  and  to  do  this  there  was  obviously  no 
occasion  to  refer  to  the  fact  of  the  ascension.  Of  the  ascension 
we  may  say,  as  of  the  resurrection,  that  there  was  no  Jewish 
expectation  to  create  the  story  which  is  given  us  by  St. 
Luke,  and  that  the  alleged  parallels  to  the  event  signally  fail. 

If,  however,  we  are  content  to  believe  that  Jesus  lives,  not 
that  Jesus  was  raised,  there  is,  of  course,  no  need  and  no 
place  for  the  incident  of  the  ascension.      How  then  did  the 

'  See  McGiffert's  remarks,  History  of  the  Apostolic  Age,  pp.  41,  64, 
82. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE   ROMANS  327 

story  of  that  event,  so  un-Jewish,  so  unintelligible,  except  as 
a  direct  sequel  to  the  resurrection,  find  a  place  in  the 
records   of  the   New  Testament? 

As  the  thought  of  the  Lord's  ascension  is  closely  con- 
nected in  St.  Luke's  account  with  the  thought  of  the  Lord's 
return,  so  we  find  that  St.  Paul  never  forgets  that  the 
ascended  and  glorified  Christ  is  to  return  to  be  our  Judge. 
And  if,  in  deference  to  textual  criticism,  we  must  now  read 
the  verse  (Rom.  xiv.  10),  "  For  we  shall  all  stand  before  the 
judgment  seat  of  God'"  (not  Christ),  yet  we  see  in  this  same 
Epistle  how  closely  St.  Paul  associates  our  Lord  with  the 
Father  in  office  and  judgeship,  how  none  of  us  can  escape 
responsibility  to  Christ  both  in  the  present  and  in  the  future, 
for  in  the  previous  verse  of  this  same  chapter  He  is  de- 
scribed as  Lord  both  of  dead  and  living.  So  in  the  close  of 
his  Epistle,  as  in  the  beginning,  St.  Paul  would  keep  before 
men's  minds  the  day  when  God  would  judge  the  secrets  of 
all  hearts  by  Jesus  Christ  (Rom.  ii.  16). 


LECTURE    XVI 

EPISTLES    OF   ST.    PAUL'S   FIRST  AND 
SECOND   IMPRISONMENTS 

THE  Epistles  of  St.  Paul's  two  captivities,  which  are  so 
marked  by  a  high  Christology,  are  also  characterised 
by  the  most  practical  exhortations  and  advice.  These 
practical  exhortations,  even  if  they  present  few  verbal 
parallels  to  our  Lord's  teaching,  are  in  a  very  remarkable 
degree  permeated  by  its  spirit.  There  are,  moreover, 
passages  which  certainly  seem  to  indicate  that  the  example 
of  Christ  must  have  been  presented  by  St.  Paul  to  his 
converts,  as,  e.g.,  when  he  writes  to  the  Colossians,  "  As  ye 
have  received  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord,  so  walk  in  Him " 
(ii.  6). 

Or,  if  we  turn  to  another  remarkable  passage  (Eph.  iv.  21), 
"  But  ye  did  not  so  learn  Christ,  if  so  be  that  ye  heard  Him, 
and  were  taught  in  Him,  even  as  truth  is  in  Jesus,"  we 
may  note  that  this  is  the  only  passage  in  the  Epistle  where 
we  have  the  name  "  Jesus  "  by  itself,  and  it  certainly  looks 
as  if  the  Apostle  was  here  referring  to  the  historical  Jesus, 
in  whom  his  converts  had  learnt  to  see  the  way,  the  life, 
and  the  truth.^  Such  a  reference  to  the  historical  Jesus  is 
full  of  significance,  for  it  shows  us  plainly  that  St.  Paul, 
even  in  the  Epistle  which  treats  most  richly  of  the  Christ 
as  the  hope  of  all  mankind,  in  whom  the  Gentile  and  the 
Jew  were  made  one,  never  forgets  that  this  same  Christ,  as 

1  Dean  of  Westminster,  E^hestans,  p.  107. 
328 


LATER  EPISTLES  329 

seen  in  Jesus,  is  the  perfect  moral  character,  the  embodiment 
of  righteousness  and  truth. 

And  as  the  example  of  Christ  and  His  indwelling  presence 
were  to  restore  and  renew  men's  moral  character,  so,  too, 
the  spirit  of  His  teaching  was  to  be  their  constant  and  their 
practical  guide.  It  may  perhaps  be  going  too  far  to  say- 
that  the  agreement  of  Eph.  iv.  32 — v.  2  with  Luke  vi.  32-3, 
35-6,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Plain,  is  beyond  dispute.  At 
the  same  time,  as  St.  Paul  bids  his  converts  to  be  kind  one 
to  another,  tender-hearted,  forgiving  each  other,  as  he  bids 
them  to  be  imitators  of  God,  as  beloved  children,  we 
remember  how  our  Lord  had  said  that  His  followers  were 
"  to  be  sons  of  the  Most  High,"  "  for  He  is  kind  "  (the  same 
word  as  is  used  by  St.  Paul)  ^  "  towards  the  unthankful  and 
the  evil,"  that  they  were,  in  other  words,  to  be  imitators 
of  God.  "  Be  ye  merciful,"  He  says,  "  as  your  Father  is 
merciful."  The  same  word  to  express  the  kindness  of  God 
is  no  doubt  often  used  of  the  divine  character  in  the  LXX. ; 
but  it  is  noticeable  that  St.  Paul  alone  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  uses  the  cognate  noun  no  less  than  eight  or 
nine  times  of  the  goodness  and  the  kindness  of  God,  or  of 
the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Christian  character. 

No  command  of  Christ  is  better  known  to  us  than  the 
familiar  "  Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow " ;  but  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  the  Revisers,  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel, 
translate  "  Be  not  anxious  for  the  morrow,"  and  that  the 
same  verb  occurs,  and  is  similarly  translated,  in  St.  Paul's 
command  to  the  Philippians,  "  In  nothing  be  anxious  "  (Phil, 
iv.  6).  This  thought  of  anxious  care  is  frequently  present 
to  St.  Paul,  and  the  verb  which  expresses  it  is  found  in  his 
writings  alone  in  the  New  Testament  (outside  the  Gospels),  and 
in  them  no  less  than  seven  times.  One  remarkable  instance 
of  its  use  may  be  seen  not  only  in  this  Philippian  Epistle,  but 
in  I  Corinthians,  a  use  which  has  suggested  to  many  of  the 
*  Sturm,  U.S.  p.  vz. 


330    TESTIMONY  OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

older  and  also  of  the  more  recent  critics  that  the  Apostle 
may  have  had  in  mind  the  story  which  we  owe  to  his  friend 
and  companion,  St.  Luke,  the  story  of  Martha  and  Mary/ 
Not  only  does  the  Apostle  use  this  same  word  of  reproof, 
the  word  denoting  anxious  care,  when  he  bids  his  converts 
to  be  free  from  cares,  "  For  the  married  is  careful  for  the 
things  of  the  world  "  (cf.  i  Cor,  vii,  32  and  St.  Luke  x.  41), 
but  it  is  noticeable  that  he  also  uses  another  word  in  the 
same  context  which  is  full  of  significance.  St.  Luke  had 
spoken  of  Martha  as  "  cumbered,"  or,  rather,  "  distracted  " 
(R.V.  marg.),  about  much  serving  (x.  40) ;  and  St.  Paul  closes 
his  exhortation  with  the  words,  "  That  ye  may  attend  upon 
the  Lord  without  distraction  "  (i  Cor.  vii.  35).  The  word 
which  the  Apostle  uses  is  found  nowhere  else  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  it  is  closely  allied  to  the  word  "  distracted," 
which  is  used  only  by  St.  Luke.^  Surely  it  is  no  wonder  that 
the  command  to  be  anxious  in  nothing  should  go  home  to 
the  hearts  of  men  like  the  early  Christians,  who  whilst  they 
were  so  much  in  the  world  were  bidden  not  to  be  of  it,  and 
we  find  an  interesting  instance  of  this  in  the  fact  that  among 
the  early  Christian  names  we  have  Amerimnos,  meaning  "  one 
without  anxious  care  "  (cf  i  Pet.  v.  5). 

In  this  same  Philippian  Epistle  it  is  possible  that  we  have 
a  reminiscence  of  some  other  familiar  words  of  our  Lord 
which  again  carry  us  back  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
The  Apostle  describes  his  converts  as  those  who  are  seen 
as  lights  in  the  world  (Phil.  ii.  15),  and  we  recall  the 
description  given  by  our  Lord  Himself  of  His  followers, 
"  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world  "  (Matt.  v.  14).  It  is,  of 
course,  quite  true  that  very  similar  imagery  is  found  in 
another  of  these  Captivity  Epistles  (Eph.  v.  8),  as  also  in 

'  See,  e.g.,  Findlay,  Expositor's  Greek  Tcstametii,  ii.  836,  and, 
amongst  older  commentators,  see  Stanley,  Corinthians,  in  loco. 

■  The  verb  and  the  cognate  adjective  are  both  found  in  the  LXX. ; 
but  in  the  New  Testament  the  verb  and  the  adverb  occur  only  in  St. 
Luke  and  St.  Paul. 


LATER   EPISTLES  331 

I  Thess.  V.  5.  But  there  again  the  precise  words,  "  children 
of  light,"  "  sons  of  light,"  recall  our  Lord's  words  not  only 
in  St.  Luke  xvi.  8,  but  in  St.  John  xiii.  36. 

In  St.  Paul's  solemn  and  final  declaration  to  Timothy, 
"  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  His,"  and,  "  Let  every 
one  that  nameth  the  name  of  the  Lord  "  (not  Christ,  as  in 
A.V.)  "  depart  from  unrighteousness  "  (2  Tim.  ii.  19),  we  have 
no  doubt  words  which  may  be  referred  to  a  reminiscence  of 
Old  Testament  passages,  as,  e.g.,  Numb.  xvi.  5,  Isa.  xxvi.  13. 
But  it  is  worth  noting  that  one  of  the  latest  writers  on  the 
Pastoral  Epistles  regards  these  words  of  St.  Paul  as  mediated 
through  the  sayings  of  Christ  in  Matt.  vii.  23-4,  Luke  xiii. 
25-7,  a  view  which  is  supported  by  a  careful  consideration 
of  the  R.V.  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord, 
Lord  !  "  "I  know  not  whence  ye  are  :  depart  from  Me,  all 
ye  that  work  unrighteousness." 

The  same  writer  makes  the  interesting  and  important 
observation  that  in  i  Timothy  parallels  may  be  found  with 
the  Gospels,  and  more  especially  with  St.  Luke,  and  that  in 
the  same  manner  reminiscences  of  our  Lord's  teaching  occur 
in  the  Epistle  to  Titus.^ 

I  have  spoken  in  an  earlier  lecture  of  the  possible  con- 
nection between  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Epistle  to  the 
Colossians.  But  it  is  also  noteworthy  that  in  one  of  the 
Epistles  of  the  second  captivity  we  find  words  which  have 
been  often  regarded  as  a  reference  to  the  same  divine 
Prayer.  St.  Paul  writes  to  Timothy  (2  Tim.  iv.  18),  "  The 
Lord  will  deliver  me  from  every  evil  work,  and  will  save  me 
unto  His  heavenly  kingdom  :  to  whom  be  the  glory  for  ever 
and  ever.  Amen."  Here  Dr.  Chase,  in  his  valuable  treatise, 
finds  a  reference  to  two  clauses  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  so 
to  the  use  of  that  Prayer  in  the  early  Church.^      It  is  quite 

1  Cf.  Dr.  Lock  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  iv.  770,  783. 
'     2  The  Lord's  Prayer  in  the  Early  Church,  p.   24.     Cf.  also   the 
remarks  of  Feine,  u.s.  p.  253,  and  Lock  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  iv.  776. 


332     TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

true  that  in  St.  Paul's  immediately  preceding  words  he  says, 
"  And  I  was  delivered  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Hon  "  ;  and  this 
language,  it  may  be  granted,  suggests  that  we  have  here  an 
echo  of  the  Old  Testament  language,  "  Save  me  from  the  lion's 
mouth  "  (Ps.  xxii.  22),  the  phrase  being  evidently  employed  as 
a  proverbial  expression  for  extreme  danger.  So,  too,  it  may 
be  granted  that  in  the  doxology  just  quoted  we  may  have 
a  reference  to  another  verse  of  Ps.  xxii.,  viz.  verse  29. 
But  even  so,  this  does  not  interfere  with  the  remarkable 
juxtaposition  in  the  Apostle's  language  of  the  conceptions 
which  are  also  united  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  that  of  deliverance 
from  evil,  and  that  of  the  heavenly  kingdom. 

At  all  events  it  is  noticeable  that  the  same  words  of  this 
same  22nd  Psalm,  which  were  evidently  present  to  the 
mind  of  our  Lord  as  He  hung  in  suffering  upon  the  Cross, 
were  doubtless  present  also  to  the  mind  of  His  faithful 
follower  as  he  lay  bound  in  his  prison  at  Rome.  The 
'^  Pastoral  Epistles,  indeed,  are  full  of  words  of  strength  and 
encouragement  for  all  in  bonds  or  distress,  words  which  in 
many  instances  carry  us  back  to  the  sayings  of  our  Gospels. 
Thus,  in  this  same  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy,  the  "  faithful 
saying"  (ii.  11-13)  may  come  to  us  as  the  fragment  of  an 
early  Christian  hymn,  and  a  hymn  based  upon  such  words 
as  those  of  our  Lord  in  Matt.  x.  33,  Luke  xii.  9.  If  we 
pass  to  a  further  consideration  of  our  Lord's  instructions  to 
His  disciples,  we  are  reminded  more  than  once  of  His 
language  by  the   Epistles  before  us. 

In  Phil.  ii.  15,  ^.^.,  we  read  "that  ye  may  be  blameless 
and  harmless,  children  of  God  without  blemish  in  the  midst 
of  a  crooked  and  perverse  generation,  among  whom  ye  are 
seen  as  lights  in  the  world."  Not  only  do  we  find  here,  as 
we  have  already  noted,  the  word  "  harmles.s,"  which  is  used 
by  St.  Paul  once  elsewhere  (Rom.  xvi.  19),  and  nowhere 
else  in  the  New  Testament  except  in  our  Lord's  charge  to 
the  Twelve  (Matt.  x.  16)  ;  but  if  we  admit  that  the  phrase  "  a 


LATER   EPISTLES  333 

perverse  generation"  is  here  derived  not  from  our  Lord's 
use  of  the  words  (Matt.  xvii.  17,  Luke  ix.  41),  but  from 
Deut  XXX.  4-5,  yet  we  have  still  to  bear  in  mind  that  there 
is  a  possible  reference,  or,  at  least,  a  remarkable  likeness  in 
the  latter  part  of  this  verse  of  Philippians  to  our  Lord's 
words  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  "  Ye  are  the  light  of 
the  world." 

In  this  connection  we  may  consider  the  remarkable 
passage  (i  Tim.  v.  18),  "For  the  Scripture  saith,  Thou  shalt 
not  muzzle  the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn.  And  the 
labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire."  This  verse  has  been  urged 
as  an  argument  against  the  authenticity  of  this  Epistle,  on 
the  ground  that  St.  Paul  is  quoting  from  St.  Luke's  Gospel. 
But  it  is  a  perfectly  reasonable  explanation  that  the  words 
"  the  Scripture  saith "  refer  only  to  the  first  clause  from 
Deut.  XXV.  4,  and  that  the  latter  part  of  the  verse  is  a 
popular  saying,  which  St.  Paul  may  certainly  have  known 
as  used  by  our  Lord  (cf  i  Cor.  ix.  14),  but  which  he  does 
not  cite  as  from  a  written  Gospel.^ 

But  before  we  pass  to  a  further  inquiry  as  to  the  scope 
and  extent  of  our  Lord's  teaching,  it  may  be  well  to  remind 
ourselves  that  these  Epistles  are  not  by  any  means  devoid 
of  references  to  the  circumstances  of  our  Lord's  life. 

If  we  are  not  told  so  plainly  as  in  Gal.  iv.  4  that  Jesus 
was  "  born  under  the  law,"  yet,  as  Zahn  points  out,  the  fact 
that  Jesus  was  placed  under  the  law  is  presupposed  in  Col. 
ii.  14  and  Eph.  ii.  15.^ 

Again,  it  is  noticeable  that  St.  Paul  speaks  (Col.  ii.  11)  of 
the  circumcision  of  Christ  (cf  Gal.  iv.  4  ;  Rom.  xv.  8)  ;  and 
although  the  reference  in  Colossians  is  to  Christian  baptism, 
yet  it  seems  to  take  for  granted  the  fact  that  our  Lord  was 
also  in  this  ordinance  of  circumcision  obedient  to  the  law. 

*  Zahn,  Einleitung,  i.  478 ;  Feine,  u.s.  p,  289  ;  Plummer,  St.  Luke, 
p.  274. 
-  Einleitungy  ii.  167. 


334     TESTIMONY    OF   ST.   PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

In  2  Tim.  ii.  8  we  have  an  emphatic  reference  to  our 
Lord's  birth  of  the  seed  of  David,  to  which  Zahn  again  draws 
attention,  and  we  have  already  spoken  in  earHer  lectures  of 
the  significance  of  the  way  in  which  St.  Paul  takes  for 
granted  this  Davidic  descent  of  the  Saviour.  And  as  in  the 
first  recorded  missionary  address  of  St.  Paul  (Acts  xiii.  23), 
so  here  in  his  latest  recorded  utterance,  we  have  a  plain  and 
definite  reference  to  the  same  feature  in  our  Lord's  descent. 
And  this  feature  must  have  been  undeniable,  as  there  is  the 
best  reason  for  supposing  that  St.  Paul  had  accurate  know- 
ledge of  the  carefully  kept  genealogies  of  the  royal  house  of 
David. 

In  this  connection  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  Gamaliel 
was  himself  of  David's  house  and  lineage.  If  any  doubt  had 
been  thrown  upon  the  Davidic  descent  of  Jesus,  Gamaliel 
would  have  been  acquainted  with  it,  and  his  disciple  Saul 
would  not  have  accepted  as  the  Messiah  one  whose  claims 
to  the  royal  lineage  were  invalid.^  If  we  carry  on  our 
thoughts  to  the  close  of  our  Lord's  earthly  career,  we 
remember  that  in  i  Tim.  vi.  13  reference  is  made  to  the 
good  confession  which  Christ  Jesus  witnessed  before  Pontius 
Pilate,  a  reference  all  the  more  notable  because  it  seems  (as 
Zahn,  P.  Ewald,  and  others  have  pointed  out)  to  be  con- 
nected with  St.  John's  account  of  the  events  of  our  Lord's 
trial. 

And  here  we  may  remark,  in  passing,  although  without 
laying  too  much  stress  upon  it,  that  Wendt  does  not  hesitate 
to  find  a  reference  to  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the  constant 
allusions  of  St.  Paul  to  the  efficacy  of  our  Lord's  blood- 
shedding.  In  this  connection  we  may  call  to  mind  that  in 
the  Colossian  Epistle  we  have  two  striking  references  to  the 

'  See  the  valuable  remarks  of  Dr.  Gifford  in  his  Commentary  (Rom. 
i.  3).  Gamaliel,  as  he  points  out,  was  himself  of  the  house  and  lineage 
of  David,  being  grandson  of  the  great  Hillel,  and  he  quotes  Taanith, 
chap.  iv.  2.  "  Rabbi  Levi  saith  :  They  found  a  roll  of  genealogies  at 
Jerusalem  in  which  it  was  written  Hillel  from  David." 


LATER   EPISTLES  335 

mode  of  our  Lord's  death,  to  the  nails  of  the  Cross  and  to 
the  blood  of  the  Cross  (i.  20,  ii.  14  ;  cf  Eph.  ii.  13,  16).^ 

Only  once,  argues  Dr.  B.  Weiss,  does  St.  Paul  refer  to  any 
definite  incident  of  the  Passion,  and  he  cites  as  this  one 
incident  i  Tim.  vi.  13,  and  remarks  that  Paul,  in  reminding 
Timothy  of  his  confession  at  Christian  baptism,  recalls  the 
occasion  of  the  good  confession  of  Jesus  before  His  Roman 
judge.^  But  if  St.  Paul  could  thus  refer  for  a  practical 
and  hortatory  lesson  to  a  definite  scene  of  the  Passion, 
as  to  something  well  and  widely  known,  may  we  not  fairly 
suppose  that  he  could  have  referred  to  other  details  also,  if 
any  immediate  occasion  had  required  ? 

Moreover,  in  this  same  First  Epistle  to  Timothy,  St.  Paul 
"^speaks  not  only  of  the  historical  circumstances,  but  also  of 
the  doctrinal  import  of  our  Lord's  death.  Thus  (i  Tim.  ii.  6) 
we  read  of  Christ  Jesus  who  gave  Himself  a  ransom  for  all. 
The  word  "  ransom  "  in  this  passage  naturally  carries  us  back 
to  our  Lord's  own  sayings  in  Matt.  xx.  28,  Mark  x.  45,  and 
we  do  well  to  remember  that  the  saying  occurs  in  the  two 
Evangelists  precisely  in  the  same  form,  and  that  it  is  quite 
arbitrary  to  maintain  that  our  Lord  never  spoke  it.^  Feine 
certainly  seems  quite  right  in  believing  that  the  natural 
collocation  of  the  words  is  "  a  ransom  for  many,"  and  that 
this  collocation  is  one  which  we  undoubtedly  derive  from  a 
study  of  the  Greek  text.  It  is  also  noticeable  that  both  in 
St.  Matthew  and  in  St.  Mark  the  Lord's  declaration  that  His 
life  would  be  a  ransom  follows  closely  upon  the  plain  fore- 
telling of  His  sufferings  and  death. 

Feine  rightly  refuses  to  follow  Schmiedel  in  the  supposi- 

*  Wendt,  U.S.  p.  54 ;  Nosgen,  u.s.  p.  55. 

'  Das  Evangelium  und  die  Evangelien,  p.  5. 

'  The  word  in  i  Tim.  ii.  6  is  avriXvTpov.  Dr.  Swete  points  out  in  Mark 
X.  45  that  this  word  is  a  variant  for  XvTpaxns  in  Ps.  xlviii.  (xlix.)  2.  In 
the  Gospels  we  have  Xvrpov  dvri  TroXkav,  and,  as  Dr.  Swete  remarks,  the 
dvrl  belongs  to  the  imagery  of  the  Xvrpov  (cf.  viii.  ^y,  avTaXXayixa  ttjs 


y^ 


336    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

tion  that  some  Aramaic  word  may  have  been  used  in  the 
Gospels  which  meant  deliverance  in  quite  a  general  sense 
without  any  reference  to  an  expiatory  sacrifice.^  But  the 
passage  in  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  not  only  connects 
itself  with  our  Lord's  words  at  the  Last  Supper  (Matt, 
xxvi.  28,  Mark  xiv.  24),  but  also  with  the  primitive 
tradition  which  St.  Paul  had  received,  and  with  the  definite 
statement  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins(i  Cor.  xv.  3). 

We  have  spoken  in  a  previous  lecture  of  the  early  date 
which  must  be  assigned  to  this  tradition  ;  and  it  seems  an 
effort  of  despair  to  get  rid  of  the  plain  meaning  of  St.  Paul's 
words  when  it  is  actually  urged  that  we  need  not  interpret 
them  in  a  literal  sense.^ 

But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  same  verse  in  2  Tim.  ii.  8, 
which  speaks  of  the  incarnation,  speaks  also  of  the  resurrection, 
and  there  is  a  tone  of  assurance  and  positiveness  about  the 
Apostle's  statements  which  is  in  itself  strengthening  and  re- 
freshing :  "  Remember  Jesus  Christ,  risen  from  the  dead,  of  the 
seed  of  David,  according  to  my  Gospel."  It  is  indeed  very 
possible  that  we  have  here,  as  in  2  Tim.  i.  13,  the  traces  of 
an  early  creed  in  use  in  the  Church. 

And  so,  too,  in  i  Tim.  iii.  16  we  have  not  only  what  is 
probably  the  fragment  of  a  Christian  hymn,  as  we  have  again 
e.g.y  in  Eph.  v.  14,  but  also  what  is  practically  a  creed,  "  and 
without  controversy  great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness  ;  He 
who  was  manifested  in  the  flesh,  justified  in  the  Spirit,  seen 

'  Feine,  u.s.  p.  1 16. 

-  Wrede,  Patilus,  p.  112  (1905). 

Dr.  Allan  Menzies,  in  a  long  and  elaborate  note  on  Mark  x.  45,  points 
out  that  Jewish  thought  is  acquainted  with  the  idea  that  by  sufferings 
and  by  the  death  of  saints  guilt  maybe  removed,  and  he  maintains  that 
although  we  read  (Mark  viii.  7)7)  that  no  one  could  give  any  equivalent 
for  his  soul  {dvToKkay^a),  yet  the  death  of  the  Messiah  might  furnish  such 
an  equivalent.  But  whatever  criticisms  may  be  passed  upon  this,  we 
cannot  follow  him  when  he  adds  that  this  idea  is  perhaps  too  developed 
to  be  ascribed  to  Jesus  Himself,  though  it  probably  entered  into  Pauline 
doctrine  {27ie  Earliest  Gospel,  p.  201). 


LATER   EPISTLES  337 

of  angels,  preached  among  the  nations,  believed  on  in  the 
world,  received  up  in  glory."  The  words  are  no  doubt  open 
to  more  explanations  than  one,  but  they  at  least  speak  of 
our  Lord  as  pre-existent  and  as  afterwards  manifested  in 
His  earthly  life.  In  the  words  "justified  in  the  Spirit"  we 
may  see  a  reference  to  the  ratification  set  upon  our  Lord's 
claims  by  His  resurrection  from  the  dead.  And  if  the  words 
"  seen  of  angels"  do  not  refer  to  the  appearances  of  angels 
in  connection  with  our  Lord's  earthly  life,  they  carry  us  on, 
as  it  were,  to  our  Lord's  glorified  life,  to  which  the  words 
"  received  up  in  glory  "  also  refer  beyond  reasonable  dispute. 
It  is,  of  course,  quite  possible  that  in  the  clauses  of  this 
early  hymn  we  have  a  triple  antithesis  :  the  flesh,  the  spirit  ; 
angels,  nations ;  the  world,  the  divine  glory.  Such  an 
antithetical  mode  of  expression  would  be  quite  characteristic 
of  St.  Paul,  and  so  in  the  words  "  the  Gentiles,"  or  "  the 
nations,"  we  may  have  a  reference  to  the  dwellers  on  earth, 
in  distinction  to  the  angels,  the  inhabitants  of  heaven  ;  and 
this  distinction  would  be  preserved  whether  the  words  "  seen 
of  angels  "  refer  to  the  incarnation  or  to  the  resurrection  of 
Christ.^  But  without  any  further  attempt  to  explain  the 
^  exact  meaning  and  relation  of  the  various  clauses,  it  may  be 
well  to  note  one  or  two  recent  criticisms  on  the  fragment 
before  us.  It  is  said,  e.g.,  by  the  writer  on  these  Pastoral 
Epistles  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.,  iv,  5086,  that  if  the  words 
"  received  up  in  glory  "  contain  an  allusion  to  the  ascension, 
such  an  allusion  is  thoroughly  un-Pauline.  But  why  ?  The 
same  word  "  received  up  "  is  used  twice  in  the  first  chapter 
of  the  Acts  (verses  i  and  22),  with  reference  to  the  ascension, 
and  the  cognate  noun  is  found  in  St.  Luke's  Gospel  (ix.  51), 
with  undoubted  reference  to  the  same  event. 

Or,  again,  it  is  said   by  the   same  critic   that  the    word 

'  The  words  "  preached  among  the  Gentiles  "  are  connected  by  some 
writers  with  Matt,  xxviii.  20.  See,  e.g.,  amongst  recent  commentaries, 
the  Century  Bible,  in  loco. 

22 


338    TESTIMONY  OF  ST.   PAUL  TO  CHRIST 

"  world  "  has  here  its  sub-Pauh'ne  emphasis  of  "  evil," 
"  believed  on  in  the  world."  But  had  not  St.  Paul  himself 
in  his  earlier  Epistles  placed  in  sharp  contrast  the  world 
and  "  them  that  believe  "  (i  Cor.  i.  21)  ?  Had  he  not  written, 
"  Now  we  have  received  not  the  spirit  of  the  world,  but  the 
Spirit  which  is  of  God  "  (i  Cor.  ii.  12)?  Had  he  not  spoken 
of  being  crucified  to  the  world  (Gal.  vi.  14)  ?  In  the  same 
way  we  are  assured  that  the  expression  "  seen  of  angels  "  is 
a  sub-Pauline  development  ;  and  this  is  apparently  proved 
. /by  rejecting  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  (cf  Eph.  iii.  10)  as 
not  belonging  to  the  Apostle.  So,  too,  the  expression  "  was 
manifested  in  the  flesh  "  is  called  un-Pauline  and  distinctly 
Johannine.  But  if  we  admit,  as  there  is  every  reason  to 
admit,  that  St.  Paul  regarded  our  Lord  as  pre-existent,  and 
that  his  language  in  his  accredited  writings  with  regard  to 
Him  is  "  distinctly  Johannine,"  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  we 
should  reject  the  phrase  before  us  as  expressing  St.  Paul's 
belief  and  that  of  the  Church.  Moreover,  St.  Paul  had 
employed  the  very  same  verb  in  Rom.  xvi.  26  of  the  mystery 
which  hath  been  kept  in  silence,  but  now  is  manifested,  and 
it  was  therefore  likely  enough  that  he  should  characterise 
the  substance  of  the  mystery  of  godliness,  concerning  which 
he  is  speaking  to  Timothy,  by  the  same  expression.^ 

If,  however,  even  if  it  could  be  shown  that  the  expression 
"  received  up  in  glory  "  does  not  allude  to  the  ascension, 
we  must  remember  that  one  of  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul's  first 
captivity  is  so  very  definite  in  its  allusion  to  this  event  that 
we  sometimes  speak  of  this  Epistle,  that  to  the  Ephesians, 
as  "  the  Epistle  of  the  Ascension."  It  is  quite  true  that 
in  one  passage  of  this  Epistle  we  have  words  which  might 
seem  at  first  sight  to  justify  the  teaching  of  Dr.  Harnack 
and  Dr.  Schmiedel,  viz.  that  St.  Paul  omits  all  mention  of 
the  ascension.  The  Apostle  {e.g.  Eph.  i.  20)  speaks  of  the 
might  which  God  wrought  in  Christ  when   He  raised  Him 

'  B.  Weiss,  Die  Brief e  Pauli  an  Timotheus  und  Titus,  p.  166. 


LATER   EPISTLES  339 

from  the  dead,  and  made  Him  to  sit  at  His  right  hand  in 
the  heavenly  places.  But  if  this  language  is  to  be  taken 
as  justifying  the  omission  of  the  ascension,  it  is  difficult  to 
say  what  we  are  to  make  of  a  later  statement  in  this  same 
Epistle  (iv.  10),  "  He  that  descended  is  the  same  also  that 
ascended  above  all  the  heavens  that  He  might  fill  all  things."^ 

It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  St.  Luke  was  very 
probably  in  St.  Paul's  company  when  the  Epistle  to  the 
Ephesians  was  written,  aud  if  so  it  is  noticeable  that  as 
St.  Paul  closely  connects  the  thought  of  the  ascension  with 
the  bestowal  of  the  gifts  for  men  (Eph.  iv.  7),  so  St.  Luke's 
description  of  the  early  days  of  the  Church  finds  a  fitting 
commencement  with  the  record  of  the  event  which  assured 
the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  the  Father  and  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

Indeed,  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  these  later  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul  are  the  best  comment  upon  our  Lord's  claim,  "  All 
authority  hath  been  given  to  Me  in  heaven  and  upon  earth  " 
(Matt,  xxviii.  18),  upon  the  new  and  wider  relation  between 
Himself  and  the  universe  which  was  marked  by  such  a 
claim.^  Thus  the  Apostle  can  speak  of  Christ  as  the  Head 
of  all  principality  and  authority,  as  being  set  in  the  heavenly 
places  far  above  all  rule  and  authority  and  power  and 
dominion  (cf,  e.g.,  Col.  i.  20,  ii.  10 ;  Eph.  i.  20).  The 
tremendous  claim  which  our  Lord  makes  after  His  resur- 
rection, a  claim  which  neither  prophets  nor  kings  had  ever 
dared  to  make,  is  the  justification  of  the  rank  assigned  to 
our  Lord  in  St.  Paul's  words,  both  in  relation  to  the  universe 
and  in  relation  to  the  Church. 

But  whilst  St.  Paul  makes  reference  to  the  incarnation, 
the  resurrection,  the  ascension  of  our  Lord,  we  must  con- 
stantly bear  in  mind  the  many  indications  that  he  kept 
closely  before  his    converts   the  unique   and   wonderful   life 

1  Cf.  Dr.  Swete,  The  Apostles'  Creed,  p.  68. 

^  Dr.  Swete,  Expositor,  October,  1902,  p.  248.  '^ 


340     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  had   lived  and  the  example  which 
He  had  bequeathed  as  an  exhaustless  legacy  to  men. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  this  aspect  of  the 
Apostle's  teaching,  which  is  contained  in  these  later  Epistles 
no  less  than  in  his  earlier  writings.  Let  us  look  for  a 
moment  at  one  other  striking  instance  of  this  feature  in  the 
Apostle's  exhortations. 

It  has  been  noted  as  a  special  characteristic  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Philippians  that  so  much  stress  is  laid  in  it  upon  the 
Christian  ideal  of  perfection  (cf.  i.  6,  lo,  ii.  15,  iii.  12,  15, 
etc.).  And  this  perfection,  if  it  was  no  longer  for  St.  Paul  a 
perfection  according  to  the  law,  from  whence  could  it  be 
derived  ?  Only,  it  would  seem,  from  the  teaching  and 
example  of  Christ.  That  Jesus  stood  forth  amongst  His 
fellows  as  a  teacher  would  certainly  seem  to  follow  from 
St.  Paul's  constant  exhortations  to  a  Christian  life.  And  if, 
as  is  plainly  the  case,  the  righteousness  of  the  law  is  no 
longer  the  righteousness  which  St.  Paul  has  under  consider- 
ation (Phil.  ii.  6-9),  as  a  means  of  perfection,  it  is  equally 
plain  that  the  righteousness  which  he  demands  is  a  righteous- 
ness derived  from  Christ  and  from  Christ  alone.  But  the 
bestower  of  this  righteousness  must  have  been  Himself  the 
Righteous  One — perfect,  sinless,  and  in  Philippians  (cf  ii.  6), 
no  less  than  in  Romans,  St,  Paul  points  to  that  perfect 
obedience  by  which  the  many  were  made  righteous. 

Again,  we  can  scarcely  fail  to  see  the  marvellous,  the 
unique  impression  which  our  Lord's  character  had  made 
upon  the  world,  when  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  could  find 
in  it  that  which  alone  could  satisfy  his  cravings  for  a 
realisation  amongst  men  of  the  righteousness  of  God,  when 
we  remember  that  that  life  of  obedience  was  also  to  St. 
Paul's  knowledge  a  life  of  humiliation  and  obscurity,  so  far 
as  its  earthly  surroundings  were  concerned,  and  that  its 
issue  was  a  death  of  degradation  and  shame. 

'  Drescher,  Das  Leben  Jesu  bet  Paiilus,  p.  59  (1900). 


LATER   EPISTLES  34i 

We  have  before  touched  upon  the  question  of  St.  Paul's 
universalism,  his  proclamation  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Gentile 
no  less  than  to  the  Jew.  There  is  a  passage  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Ephesians  to  which  reference  is  sometimes  made  in 
this  connection  :  "  And  He  came  and  preached  peace  to  you 
that  were  far  off,  and  peace  to  them  that  were  nighi"  (ii.  17). 
The  words  may  mean  that  Christ  came,  i.e.,  at  His  Advent, 
and  preached  peace  to  Jew  and  Gentile  alike. 

But  there  is,  no  doubt,  a  very  different  interpretation  of 
the  words,  which  has  been  recently  advocated  by  the  Dean 
of  Westminster.^  In  the  words  "  He  came  and  preached  " 
he  sees  not  a  reference  to  the  work  of  the  Lord  Jesus  on 
earth  before  the  crucifixion,  but  to  the  work  of  the  exalted 
Christ  in  announcing  the  peace  which  His  death  had  made. 
Or,  again,  it  may  be  noted  that  the  words  are  sometimes 
referred  not  to  the  coming  of  Christ  into  the  world  at  His 
Advent,  but  to  the  whole  of  His  sojourn  on  earth,  just  as 
we  read,  "  John  came  neither  eating  nor  drinking,"  or,  as 
St.  Paul  says  elsewhere,  "  Christ  came  to  save  sinners."  In 
this  way  our  Lord's  whole  manifestation  and  appearance 
are  regarded  as  bringing  a  great  message  of  peace  to 
mankind  without  any  reference  to  any  special  passages  such 
as  those  quoted  by  Dr.  Zahn.^ 

But  in  any  case  these  words  before  us  present  a  wide 
view  of  the  meaning  of  the  Gospel  and  of  its  purpose  to 
embrace  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike.  The  question, 
however,  is  often  raised  as  to  how  far  St.  Paul  in  his 
missionary  efforts,  in  his  proclamation  of  a  message  of  peace 
for  the  world,  was  at  one  with  the  purpose  and  outlook  of 
the  historical  Jesus. 

According  to  Dr.  Harnack,  the  mission  to  the  heathen  did 

not  lie  within  the  horizon  of  Jesus,  as  we  read  the  story  of 

'  Cf.,  e.g.,  Zahn,  Einleitung,  ii.  167,  with  references  to  John  x.  16, 
xii.  32  ;  Matt.  viii.  11  ;  Luke  xiii.  29. 
^  E;pistle  to  the  E;phesians,  p.  66. 
^  See  E.  Haupt,  Der  Brief  an  die  E^heser^  in  loco,  1902. 


342     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

His  life  in  the  Gospels.  This  statement  becomes  all  the 
more  serious  when  we  are  also  asked  to  believe  that  the 
familiar  last  charge  to  the  disciples  (Matt,  xxviii.  19)  was 
not  spoken  by  Jesus,  but  was  a  later  addition  to  the 
Gospel  bearing  the  name  of  St.   Matthew.^ 

But  even  if  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  words  of  the 
historical  Jesus  in  the  first  three  Gospels,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  Dr.  Harnack's  remarks  can  be  justified.  In  the 
first  place  our  Lord's  whole  attitude  towards  the  Old 
Testament  would  be  altered,  and  the  representation  which 
He  gives  us  of  His  own  work  and  person.  He  claims,  for 
example,  to  be  the  Servant  of  the  Lord,  the  Servant  of 
Isaiah's  prophecy  ;  but  this  Servant  was  to  be  a  light  to  the 
Gentiles  (Isa.  xlix.  6).  And  not  only  would  He  have 
fallen  short  of  the  representation  in  Isaiah's  prophetic 
picture,  but  He  would  have  been  not  greater,  but  less,  than 
Jonah,  to  whose  successful  preaching  to  the  Gentiles  He 
refers  in   His  teaching  (Matt.   xii.  39-41).^ 

In  our  Lord's  preaching  of  the  kingdom  we  see  how 
plainly  He  passes  beyond  the  limits  of  Israel  (Matt.  viii.  11, 
xxi.  43).  The  Gospel  from  the  beginning  is  conceived  of 
as  embracing  the  whole  world  ;  the  parables  speak  of  the 
universality  of  the  kingdom,  the  field  is  the  world  ;  again 
and  again  are  the  disciples  reminded  of  the  fact  that  this 
Gospel  was  to  be  preached  among  all  nations ;  wherever 
the  Gospel  was  preached  in  the  whole  world  a  memorial 
was    to    be  found    of  the  action    of   the   woman    who  had 

^  Harnack,  Die  Mission  und  Ausbreitungdes  Christetitums,  p.  25  fif. 
For  a  special  criticism  of  Harnack's  whole  position  with  regard  to  this 
question  frequent  reference  is  made  above  to  the  able  treatise  of 
Professor  Bornhauser,  of  Griefswald,  Wollte  Jesus  die  Heiden?nission  ? 
(1903).  With  regard  to  the  words  of  our  Lord's  last  charge  in  Matt, 
xxviii.,  see,  for  a  valuable  maintenance  of  the  conservative  position, 
Zahn,  Das  Evangelism  des  Alatthdus,  pp.  711-13  (1903);  Professor 
Riggenbach  of  Basle,  Der  lyinitarische  Taiifbefehl,  1903;  and 
Dr.  Swete  Expositor,  October,  1902. 

^  Bornhauser,  u.s,  p.  18 ;  Zahn,  u.s.  pp.  712-13. 


LATER  EPISTLES  343 

washed  the  feet  of  the  Lord ;  for  His  name's  sake  the 
disciples  were  to  be  hated  among  all  the  nations.  It  is 
difficult  to  see  how  our  Lord's  parable  of  the  wicked 
husbandmen  is  to  be  interpreted  with  any  reasonableness 
except  upon  the  supposition  that  He  meant  His  Gospel 
to  pass  beyond  the  limits  of  Judaism.  The  kingdom  is  to 
be  given  to  other  husbandmen,  that  is  to  a  nation  which 
will  bring  forth  its  fruits  in  due  season,  and  the  expression 
seems  to  exclude  the  supposition  that  only  some  other 
part  of  the  Jewish  nation  is  meant.  Whatever  doubts  may 
be  thrown  upon  this  parable  by  Jiilicher  or  by  Harnack, 
there  are  no  sufficient  grounds  for  its  rejection.  Indeed, 
criticism  seems  to  run  riot  when,  in  face  of  such  a  passage 
as  Matt.  X.  1 8,  "  Ye  shall  be  brought  before  governors  and 
kings  for  My  sake,  for  a  testimony  to  them  and  to  the 
Gentiles,"  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  the  kings  and 
governors  need  not  mean  Gentiles,  and  that  the  clause  "  for 
a  testimony  to  the  Gentiles  "  is  added  in  the  sense  of 
Matt,   xxviii.    19.^ 

If  we  are  referred  to  such  passages  as  Matt.  xv.  24,  "  I 
am  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
Israel,"  they  are  fairly  interpreted  as  meaning  that  our  Lord's 
purpose  was  to  confine  Himself  to  His  own  people  during 
His  earthly  ministry  ;  but  this  in  no  way  invalidates  the 
proof  that  He  foresaw  a  world-wide  preaching  of  the  Gospel, 
a  prescience  which  may  be  inferred  from  so  many  passages 
in  the  Gospels.  But  the  more  we  lay  stress  upon  such  a 
passage  as  this  as  teaching  us  that  our  Lord's  horizon  was 
bounded  by  Israel,  the  more  difficult  does  it  become  to 
understand  how  the  early  Christian  Church  ever  undertook 
so   quickly   and   so   eagerly  the   work  of  preaching   to  the 

'  Harnack,  u.s.  p.  25.  Dr.  Harnack  seems  to  rest  his  case  for  the 
most  part  upon  Matt.  x.  23  ;  but  this  is  a  very  disputed  passage,  and  has 
been  very  variously  explained  (cf.  Bomhauser,  u.s.  p.  60 ;  Zahn,  u.s. 
P-  405). 


344     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

heathen,  and  that,  too,  before  the  mission  to  the  Jews  was 
fully  completed. 

If  our  Lord  had  never  given  any  definite  command  for 
such  work,  how  is  it  that  His  followers  so  speedily  caught 
the  spirit  of  freedom  of  His  Gospel  and  acknowledged  the 
universalism  which  it  breathed  ?  "  Paul,"  says  Dr.  Harnack, 
"  was  not  the  first  missionary  to  the  heathen."  But  all  the 
more  surprising  is  it  that  this  should  be  so,  and  that  the  field 
of  missionary  enterprise  should  have  been  so  early  occupied, 
and  that,  too,  without  any  express  command  from  our  Lord. 
No  wonder  that  we  are  assured  that  the  beginnings  of 
missions  to  the  Gentiles  are  not  quite  clear.^ 

But  it  is  notable  that  at  the  Jerusalem  Council  no 
question  is  raised  as  to  the  admission  of  Gentiles  to  the 
Church,  but  only  as  to  the  restrictions  which  should  be 
guarded  in  that  admission.  Nowhere  do  we  find  that  the 
mission  to  the  Gentiles  in  itself  is  opposed,  but  only  the 
conditions  under  which  the  Gentiles  should  be  received 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church.^ 

If,  again,  in  the  first  three  Gospels  our  Lord's  horizon 
never  extended  beyond  the  Jewish  nation,  and  if  His 
teaching  as  reported  in  these  Gospels  had  so  plainly  shown 
what  His  attitude  of  exclusiveness  was  towards  the  Gentile 
world,  it  is  strange  that  there  is  no  intimation  that  St.  Paul's 
own  liberal  position  was  challenged  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  opposed  to  the  instructions  of  Jesus. 

Surely,  if  any  proof  could  have  been  forthcoming  from  the 
lips  of  Jesus  to  the  effect  that  St.  Paul  was  acting  in  a 
manner  directly  at  variance  with  his  Master's  views  and 
purpose,  this  proof  would  have  been  produced  by  men  who 
were  filled  with  personal  hatred  against  the  Apostle,  and 
whom  he  could  describe  in  his  earliest  Epistle  as  forbidding 
him    to    speak    to   the   Gentiles,  that  they  might  be  saved 

•  Harnack,  u.s.  p.  33. 

*  Riggenbach,  u.s.  p.  152. 


LATER   EPISTLES  345 

(i  Thess.  ii.  15).^  The  words  of  Neander  have  by  no  means 
lost  their  force  :  "  Although  Paul,"  he  writes,  "  first  brought 
out  the  idea  of  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  into  perfect 
clearness  before  the  Apostles,  yet  he  advocated  it  in  no 
other  power  than  that  of  Christ.  Had  not  the  idea  been 
contained  in  Christ's  teaching,  the  other  Apostles  could  not 
have  recognised  Paul  as  a  Christian,  much  less  an  Apostle.^ 

But  whilst  Jesus  is  nowhere  represented  in  the  Synoptists 
before  His  death  as  giving  commission  to  His  disciples  to 
preach  to  the  heathen,  nothing  was  more  natural  than  that 
after  that  event,  and  after  the  resurrection  which  attested 
His  triumph  over  death.  He  should  declare  to  His  chosen 
witnesses  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be 
preached  in  His  name  to  all  the  nations  beginning  from 
Jerusalem.  And  St.  Paul  had  entered  into  these  labours, 
and  had  laboured  more  abundantly  than  all  others,  but  at 
the  same  time  he  never  forgot  that  the  Gospel  which  he 
preached  was  for  the  Jew  first  and  secondly  for  the  Greek. 
It  was  the  order  of  his  Master,  and  St.  Paul  who  loved  his 
nation  was  prepared  to  follow  it  unhesitatingly.  And  it  is 
an  order  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  perfectly  natural ;  there 
is  no  contradiction  between  the  "  historical "  and  the 
"  dogmatic  "  tradition  concerning  Jesus  in  this  respect.  The 
Christ  who  was  made,  in  St.  Paul's  own  words  (Rom.  xv.  8), 
a  minister  of  circumcision  for  the  truth  of  God,  the  Christ 
who  was  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house 
of  Israel,  was  also  the  risen  Christ,  in  whom  neither 
circumcision  availed  anything  nor  uncircumcision,  the  Christ 
who  could  send  forth  His  disciples  as  One  having  authority, 
that  they  should  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  and  baptize 
them  into  the  Name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit. 
Here  we  have  the  explanation  and  the  justification  of  the 
closing  benediction  of  St.  Paul  upon  the  Church  of  Corinth, 

1  Bornhauser,  u.s.  p.  70, 

2  Neander,  Life  of  Christ,  p.  93,  E.T. 


346     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAOL   TO   CHRIST 

with  which  it  has  been  rightly  said  that  the  historical 
treatment  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity  commences  : 
"  The  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God, 
and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you  all  " 
(2  Cor.  xiii.  14). 

But  this  passage  (Eph.  ii.  13)  opens  out  to  us  the  whole 
question  of  the  relation  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles  to  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John,  and  not  only  to  the  Synoptists. 

The  German  writer  P.  Ewald,  who  traced  some  years 
ago  (1890)  frequent  reminiscences  of  St.  John's  teaching  in 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  compares  the  passage  we  have 
been  considering  with  John  x.  16  :  "  And  other  sheep  I  have 
which  are  not  of  this  fold  ;  them  also  I  must  bring."  But 
the  writer  who,  of  all  others,  has  gone  most  thoroughly  into 
the  subject  before  us,  P.  Feine,  is  disposed  to  doubt  whether 
our  Lord  ever  spoke  the  words  attributed  to  Him  in  St.  John, 
as  in  that  case  he  holds  that  St.  Paul's  struggle  for  the 
universalism  of  the  Christian  Church  and  the  recognition  of 
Gentiles  freed  from  the  bondage  of  the  law  would  be 
unintelligible.  But  it  would  seem  that  there  were  many 
words  of  our  Lord  not  only  in  St.  John,  but  in  the 
first  three  gospels,  which  were  not  understood  at  first,  words 
which  had  a  close  bearing  upon  the  same  great  subject. 

But  whilst  Feine  thus  declines  to  admit  this  parallel, 
which  H.  Holtzmann  allowed  (although  he  did  so  to 
establish,  as  he  imagined,  the  dependence  of  St.  John  upon 
St.  Paul),  yet  he  instances  many  other  points  of  likeness 
between  the  fourth  Gospel  and  the  Pauline  Epistles,  some 
of  which  we  have  already  noted.  He  lays  considerable 
stress,  e.g.,  upon  the  parallel  presented  between  John  xii.  35 
and  Eph.  v.  8  (i  Thess.  v.  5).^  And  as  he  thinks  it 
probable  that  in  John  iii.,  which  treats  of  our  Lord's  con- 
versation   with    Nicodemus,   we   have   a    true    tradition,    he 

'  It  may  be  remarked  here  that  P.  Ewald  finds  one  of  his  notable 
parallels  between  this  same  chapter,  Eph.  v.  13  and  John  iii.  20. 


LATER   EPISTLES  347 

conceives  that  it  is  quite  possible  to  establish  a  relation 
between  our  Lord's  words  as  to  the  new  birth  and  St.  Paul's 
teaching  as  to  regeneration  in  Titus  iii.  3. 

No  doubt  the  parallels  adduced  both  by  Feine  and 
P.  Ewald  will  appeal  with  very  different  force  to  different 
readers.  It  does  not  seem  well,  e.g.,  to  force  a  parallel,  upon 
which  Feine  is  inclined  to  insist,  between  2  Cor.  iv.  3  ff  and 
John  viii.  44,  But  still  the  list  in  both  writers  is  a  valuable 
one,  as  it  shows  that  the  spirit,  if  not  the  phraseology,  of  the 
teaching  in  St.  John  was  known  at  an  earlier  date  than  is 
often  admitted  to  be  the  case.  In  this  connection  the 
editors  of  the  newly  discovered  "  Sayings  of  Jesus  "  make  a 
remark  of  considerable  import  in  affirming  that  the  mystical 
elements  in  Christ's  sayings,  which  found  the  highest  and 
most  widely  accepted  expression  in  St.  John's  Gospel,  may 
well  have  been  much  more  general  and  less  peculiarly 
Johannine  than  has  hitherto  been  taken   for  granted. 

We  have  previously  spoken  of  the  importance  of  the 
phrase  "  in  Christ  "  which  marks  the  mystical  element  in  St, 
Paul's  theology,  and  although  there  are  passages  in  the 
Synoptists  which  might  teach  such  a  truth,  it  is  with  the 
phraseology  so  characteristic  of  St.  John  that  we  must 
naturally  connect  it.^ 

That  St.  Paul  should  thus  refer  to  our  Lord's  teaching 
and  character,  and  to  the  great  facts  of  His  life,  in  these 
latest  Epistles,  is  surely  not  surprising. 

Let  us  remember  that  we  have  in  2  Tim.  i.  13  a  word 
closely  related  to  that  remarkable  word   of  which   we  had 

*  Feine,  in  his  Jesus  Christies  und  Paulus,  gives  us  no  less  than 
some  eighteen  points  of  coincidence  between  St.  John's  Gospel  and  St. 
Paul's  Epistles,  some  of  which  have  been  noted  above.  Those  relating 
to  Ephesians  are  John  iv.  34,  v.  30,  vi.  38,  vii.  17,  ix.  31,  and  Eph.  vi. 
6;  Col.  i.  9,  iv.  12  ;  John  x.  16  and  Eph.  ii.  13  ;  John  xii.  36  and  Eph. 
V.  8  ;  John  xiii.  2-17  ;  Eph.  iv.  2,  2>'^.  In  these  references  we  trace  a 
similarity  of  thought,  not  always  a  similarity  in  expression. 

Reference  may  also  be  made  to  the  parallels  adduced  by  P.  Ewald, 
a  large  number  of  which  are  related  to  Ephesians,  as  well  as  to  other 


348     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

occasion  to  speak  in  Rom.  vi.  17,  where  the  Apostle  reminds 
his  converts  that  they  had  become  obedient  from  the  heart 
to  that  form  of  doctrine  whereunto  they  were  delivered. 
There  St.  Paul  recalls  the  form  or  pattern  of  teaching  which 
the  Roman  believers  had  received,  and  here  he  says  to 
Timothy,  "  Hold  fast  the  pattern  of  healthful  words  which 
thou  hast  heard  from  me."  In  each  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles 
we  have  this  significant  expression  "  sound,"  i.e.  "  healthful." 

Moreover,  in  his  First  Epistle  to  Timothy,  the  Apostle 
refers  not  only  to  healthful  teaching,  but  to  the  source  upon 
which  that  teaching  was  based  he  speaks  of  sound,  healthful 
words,  even  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  (i  Tim.  vi.  3). 
It  is  surely  a  suggestive  fact  that  as  St.  Paul  had  bidden  the 
elders  of  the  Church  at  Ephesus  "  to  remember  the  words  of 
the  Lord  Jesus"  (Acts  xx.  35),  so  in  writing  to  the  same 
Church  he  urges  a  consent  to  the  healthful  words  of  the 
same   Lord. 

Here,  again,  it  seems  much  more  satisfactory  to  see  in 
such  language  a  reference  to  the  words  of  Jesus  as  the  norm 
and  rule  of  Christian  teaching  than  to  regard  the  expression 
as  simply  meaning  words  which  concern  the  Lord  Jesus,  as 
in  the  expression  "  the  word  or  preaching  of,  or  concerning, 
the  Cross"  (i  Cor.  i.  18). 

But  if  the  Apostle  had  simply  meant  this,  he  would 
scarcely  have  expressed  himself  as  he  does.  Nowhere  else 
in  the  New  Testament  is  the  same  phrase  found  which  we 
find  here,  except  in   Acts  xx.  35,   and   none  can   doubt  its 

Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  See  Witness  of  the  Epistles,  pp.  329-346,  for  an 
examination  of  P.  Ewald's  references. 

Archdeacon  Watkins,  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible.,  2nd  edit., 
I,  Part  II.,  p.  1754  (1893),  also  gives  a  valuable  list  of  parallels  between 
Colossians  and  Ephesians  and  St.  John's  Gospel.  Cf.,  e.g.,  John  iii. 
13  and  Eph.  iv.  9-10 ;  John  iii.  20-1  and  Eph.  v.  li,  13  ;  John  xii.  35 
and  Eph.  v.  8;  John  xiii.  34  and  Eph.  iv.  2,  26,  32,  v.  21  ;  John  xiv. 
30  and  Eph.  ii.  2  ;  so  also  John  iii.  3  and  Col.  iii.  1-2,  9-10;  John  vi. 
32-3  and  Col.  ii.  17  ;  John  xiii.  34  and  Col.  iii.  13  ;  John  xiv.  6  and 
Col.  ii.  3  ;  John  xviii.  i'],  xv.  15,  xvii.  26  and  Col.  i.  26-7. 


LATER   EPISTLES  349 

meaning  there  or  its  reference  to  the  actually  spoken  words 
of  Jesus.  We  may  again  pause  to  enforce  the  conclusion 
that  if  St  Paul  was  able  to  remind  the  elders  of  the  Church 
at  Ephesus  of  a  word  of  the  Lord  Jesus  for  an  immediate 
and  practical  purpose,  he  must  have  had  at  his  command,  in 
these  sound  words  of  the  same  Lord  to  which  he  refers,  a 
further  source  for  instruction  and  righteousness,  if  any 
necessity  or  occasion  had  presented  itself. 

It  may  be  noted,  in  passing,  as  a  matter  not  without 
interest,  that  we  have  in  the  introduction  to  the  earlier 
discovered  sayings  of  Jesus  (1897)  indications  of  a  formula 
similar  to  that  which  is  employed  in  some  of  the  earlier 
citations  of  our  Lord's  saying,  as,  e.g.,  in  St.  Clement  of 
Rome  (xiii.),  where  we  read,  "  Especially  remembering  the 
words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  which  He  spake  in  His  teaching  .  .  . 
for  thus  He  said,"  or  in  Acts  xx.  35,  "  And  to  remember  the 
words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how  He  Himself  said."  And  it  is 
held  to  be  quite  possible  that  these  formulse  are  themselves 
derived  from  the  introduction  to  a  primitive  collection  of 
Sayings  known  to  St.  Paul  and  St.  Clement  alike.  But 
although  such  suggestions  can  never  be  without  interest,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  we  have  at  present  any  definite 
support  for  them,  nor  can  we  pass  beyond  the  region  of 
conjecture. 

Once  more,  it  has  been  recently  maintained  that  these 
prison  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  indicate  not  obliquely  the  growing 
need  of  some  evangelic  compositions  and  the  danger  which 
existed  lest  the  historical  tradition  of  Jesus  should  be 
swamped  by  contemporary  speculations  and  the  presence  of 
semi-Oriental  fantasy  (Moffatt's  Hist.  N.T.,  p.  230,  2nd 
edit.).  St.  Paul,  it  is  urged,  realised  this  danger  himself,  as 
we  learn  from  his  expressions  in  these  Epistles  (cf,  e.g.,  Col. 
ii.  6,  iii.  17,  Eph.  iv.  21)  ;  and  yet  if  we  ask.  What  saved  the 
Church?  we  are  told  that  it  was  not  spiritual  speculation  like 
that  of  St.  Paul,  which  could  not  afford  any  guarantee  that 


350    TESTIMONY  OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

it  would  keep  by  the  track  of  the  Gospel  as  given  in  history. 
But  St.  Paul's  own  writings,  and  by  no  means  in  the  least 
degree  his  latest  writings,  his  captivity  Epistles,  enable  us  to 
see  how  firmly  and  constantly  he  kept  before  him  the 
historical  tradition  concerning  Jesus,  in  spite  of  all  that  is 
said  about  his  spiritual  speculations,  and  how,  in  spite  of 
his  high  Christology  (which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  found 
in  his  earliest,  no  less  than  in  his  latest.  Epistles),  he  is  by 
no  means  forgetful  of  the  principles  and  the  teaching  of 
the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels. 


Third    Series 

St.   Paul's    Testimony    in    Relation    to 
the  Life  of  the  Church 


LECTURE    XVll 
THE    FIRST  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY 

WE  think  of  St.  Paul,  and  rightly,  as  the  great 
missionary  Apostle.  But  before  we  pass  to  a 
consideration  of  his  missionary  journeys,  it  is  well  not  to 
forget  the  earlier  period,  during  which  the  Apostle  was 
influencing  the  life  of  the  Church  by  his  teaching  and  by 
his  work.  I  am  not  thinking  only  of  the  Apostle's  dis- 
cussions with  the  Jews  in  the  synagogues  of  Damascus 
and  Jerusalem,  although  his  testimony  before  his  fellow 
countrymen  must  have  been  indeed  remarkable,  little  as  we 
are  told  of  it.  We  may  note,  e.g.y  that  St.  Paul's  declara- 
tion that  Jesus  is  "  the  Son  of  God  "  is  borne  in  the  first 
place  not  before  Gentiles,  but  before  Jews  (Acts  ix.  20). 
This  appears  to  be  the  only  certain  occurrence  of  the  title 
in  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  was 
a  Messianic  title  with  which  the  Jews  would  be  familiar. 
And  this  language  of  St.  Paul  in  his  earliest  preaching 
is  in  remarkable  and  apparently  quite  undesigned  agree- 
ment with  his  language  about  himself  when  referring  to 
his  conversion  :  "  It  was  the  good  pleasure  of  God,"  he 
writes  to  the  Galatians,  "  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me " 
(Gal.  i.  15).^  In  the  same  chapter  of  the  Acts,  which 
opens  with  the  picture  of  Saul  breathing  out  slaughter 
against  the  disciples  of  "  the  Lord,"  this  same  Saul  is 
represented    as   seeing   in   Jesus  "  the    Lord,"   and  as   pro- 

'  Chase,  Credibility  of  the  Acts,  p.  177. 

353  23 


354    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

claiming  this  same  Jesus  as  "  the  Son  of  God."  No 
wonder  that  such  a  message  was  received  with  amazement 
both  at  Damascus  and  in  Jerusalem.  But  the  marvellous 
change  which  had  been  wrought  in  Saul  gave  him  from 
the  first  not  only  boldness  in  preaching  and  a  divine 
strength,  but  won  for  him  the  confidence  of  those  who 
were  ready  to  rank  themselves  as  his  disciples.  For  it 
would  seem,  from  the  remarkable  rendering  adopted  by  the 
R.V.,  by  Westcott  and  Hort,  and  by  the  German  Nestle 
(Acts  ix.  25),  that  St.  Paul  had  already  gained  in  Jerusalem 
disciples  of  his  own. 

But  now  there  came  a  strain  which  must  have  been 
harder  for  a  man  of  Paul's  temperament  to  bear  than 
all  the  plots  of  the  Jews.  He  leaves  Jerusalem  for  Tarsus 
in  peril  of  his  life,  and  yet  he  is  not  to  go  at  once  and 
far  hence  among  the  Gentiles,  but  to  spend  many  years 
in  his  native  town,  where  it  is  possible  that  his  relations 
with  his  old  home  might  have  embittered  and  endangered 
his  stay.^  But  few  things  seem  to  confirm  more  strikingly 
the  truth  of  St.  Luke's  narrative  than  this  blank  of  some 
ten  years,  of  which  the  historian  says  nothing,  and  to  the 
labours  of  which  St.  Paul  himself  only  incidentally  refers. 
Nothing  is  further  removed  from  the  picture  of  a  mere 
fanatic  than  this  quiet  patience  of  St.  Paul  for  a  further 
and  fuller  sphere  to  be  revealed  to  him  ;  and  if  St.  Luke 
had  been  intent  on  magnifying  his  hero,  it  is  strange  that 
he  should  leave  him  at  the  end  of  this  lapse  of  years  to 
be  sought  out  by  Barnabas,  rather  than  to  come  forward 
on  his  own  initiative.  He  is  brought  to  Antioch  by  the 
man  of  whom  it  has  been  truly  said  that  he  twice  saved 
Paul  for  Christianity — Barnabas,  so  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  of  faith,  so  generous  in  his  gifts  and  in  his  friendship. 
For  a  whole  year   the  two   friends  were  gathered  together 

•  See  Art.  "Paul,"  by  Dr.  Findlay,  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  iii.  704,  and 
cf.  Ramsay,  St.  Paul,  p.  46. 


THE   FIRST  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY        355 

in  the  Church,  and  taught  much  people,  and  it  would  seem, 
as  the  rendering  of  the  R.V.  intimates,  that  one  result  of 
this  spread  of  the  faith  among  the  Gentiles  followed  in  the 
bestowal  of  the  name  "  Christians,"  a  name  coined  at  first 
perhaps  in  mockery  and  ridicule,  but  destined  to  confer  a 
glory  upon  the  city  of  Antioch  in  comparison  with  which, 
as  St.  Chrysostom,  in  later  days,  reminded  its  inhabitants, 
all  claims  to  distinction  were  of  little  worth.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  Harnack  declines  to  accept  the  doubts  which 
have  been  raised  against  the  historical  character  of  the 
bestowal  of  the  name  "  Christian  "  ^  in  the  Acts,  and  it  is 
very  probable  that  he  is  right  in  his  conjecture  that  the 
name  was  first  coined  by  the  Roman  officials  in  Antioch, 
and  was  afterwards  taken  up  by  the  common  people  ;  so 
that  even  if  we  do  not  take  into  account  the  remarkable 
inscription  at  Pompeii,  we  may  be  assured  of  the  antiquity 
of  the  name.^ 

In  two  ways  St.  Paul's  work  at  Antioch  must  have 
strengthened  and  prepared  him  for  his  great  future. 
First  of  all,  he  would  of  necessity  be  brought  into  contact 
with  every  kind  of  light  and  pretentious  wisdom,  of  super- 
stition and  depravity  combined  ;  he  would  be  aware  of  the 
prevalence  all  around  him  of  every  form  of  profligacy  and 
vice.  Daphnici  mores  were  as  proverbial  as  the  morals  of 
Corinth.  In  the  busy  agora  he  would  find  a  representative 
of  Roman,  Greek,  Jew  alike  ;  whilst  the  worst  features  of 
East  and  West  marked  the  life  of  a  city  devoted  to  the 
pursuit  of  art  and  wealth  and  pleasure.  And  at  the  same 
time  he  would  learn  that  there  were  men  and  women  in 
Antioch,  as  in  Corinth,  who  were  not  ashamed  of  the  name 
given  to  them  in  derision  and  scorn,  who  were  not  ashamed 

'  Die  Missio7i  und  Ausbreitung des  Christentums,  p.  295,  and,  to 
the  same  effect.  Dr.  Clemen  also  {Paulus,  i.  215). 

^  See,  as  against  the  recent  objection  of  P.  W.  Schmidt,  Die 
Geschichte  Jesu,  ii.  19,  Harnack  and  Clemen,  u.s.,  and  Art. 
"  Christian  "  (Gayford)  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  i. 


356    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO  CHRIST 

to  confess  the  faith  of  a  crucified  malefactor.  In  the  second 
place,  he  would  learn  to  recognise,  and  to  bear  testimony 
to,  the  strengthening  bonds  of  a  common  need  sustained 
by  the  ties  of  a  common  brotherhood.  He  and  Barnabas 
were  dispatched  to  Jerusalem  to  minister  during  the  famine 
and  to  distribute  relief  And  as  the  charitable  work  thus 
accomplished  in  Jerusalem  bore  fruit  in  the  increase  of 
grace  conferred  upon  the  Church  in  Antioch,  so  St.  Paul 
may  early  have  been  stimulated  to  the  undertaking  of  a 
further  and  greater  work,  which  occupied  so  much  of  the 
energies  of  his  after  years,  and  to  which  he  refers  so 
touchingly  in  his  letters,  the  collection  for  the  poor  saints, 
which  he  helped  to  bear  with  his  own  hands,  and  at  the 
risk   of  his  life,  to  the  holy  city.^ 

And  now  all  that  had  happened  since  the  day  of  the 
Apostle's  conversion,  his  years  of  retirement  in  Arabia,  his 
perils  from  his  own  countrymen,  his  ministry  of  service  and 
faith  in  Jerusalem  and  Antioch,  his  fearless  and  continuous 
proclamation  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ, — all  this  was  to  bear 
a  rich  and  enduring  harvest.  Paul  and  Barnabas  are  sent 
forth  by  the  Church  to  the  work  to  which  God  had  called 
them. 

It  was  quite  in  accordance  with  the  fitness  of  things  that 
the  work  of  evangelising  the  Gentile  world  should  take  its 
start  from  Cyprus.  Already  men  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene  had 
preached  the  Lord  Jesus  at  Antioch,  and  that  not  only,  as 
it  would  seem,  to  Jews,  but  also  to  Gentiles ;  and  their  success 
had  occasioned  the  sending  of  another  Cypriote,  Barnabas, 
to  the  same  city.  There  he  had  recognised  and  welcomed 
the  grace  of  God  bestowed  upon  the  labours  of  his  fellow 
countrymen.  But  Barnabas  would  also  not  forget  that 
they  in  turn  would  welcome  grace  for  grace  in  any  fresh 
effort  to  Christianise  their  island  home. 

'  Ramsay,  St.  Paul,  pp.  52,  54;  and  Zahn,  Skizzefi  aus  dem  Leben 
der  alien  Kirc/ie,  p.  152. 


THE   FIRST    MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       357 

And  in  this  choice  of  Cyprus  St.  Paul  would  also 
be  interested,  not  only  because  of  its  nearness  to  his  own 
native  Tarsus,  but  also  because  of  his  friendship  with 
Barnabas.  That  friendship  may  well  have  commenced  at 
an  earlier  date  than  the  first  mention  of  the  two  men 
together  in  the  New  Testament  (Acts  ix.  27).  It  is,  indeed, 
not  at  all  improbable  that  Barnabas,  as  an  Hellenist, 
might  have  been  a  fellow  student  with  Saul  at  the  famous 
University  of  Tarsus. 

In  the  work  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  Cyprus  we  have 
the  first  use  of  a  word  which  has  been  fitly  called  one  of 
the  missionary  words  in  Acts.  It  is  only  so  used  by  St.  Luke 
and  St.  Paul,  and  only  by  the  former  in  the  second  part  of 
his  book — the  part  which  describes  the  great  missionary 
journeys.  It  helps  us  to  realise  how  much  is  contained  in 
the  simple  phrase,  "  when  they  had  gone  through  the  whole 
island "  (Acts  xiii.  6),  preaching  first  of  all  in  the  Jewish 
synagogues,  according  to  Paul's  usual  custom  to  offer  the 
word  of  God  first  to  the  Jews,  and  making  every  effort 
as  missionaries.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  surprising  that  various 
critics  should  have  exercised  their  ingenuity  in  dealing 
with  the  scene  connected  with  Paphos.  The  surprising 
thing  is  that  St.  Luke  should  describe  so  briefly  and  in 
such  a  matter-of-fact  way  an  incident  so  full  of  significance 
for  the  future  work  of  St,  Paul  :  Paul,  a  Roman  citizen, 
face  to  face,  at  the  opening  of  his  missionary  labour,  with  an 
official  representative  of  the  Empire,  and  not  only  so,  but 
face  to  face  with  a  representative  of  those  strange  Oriental 
systems  of  religion  which  exercised,  as  we  know,  such  a 
wonderful  fascination  over  varying  grades  of  rank  and 
culture  in  the  Roman  world.  Here,  at  least,  was  a 
splendid  opportunity  for  elaboration  and  embellishment. 
And  if  this  tale  had  been  a  forgery,  we  can  scarcely 
believe  that  it  would  have  been  narrated  as  we  find  it. 
Dr.   Schmiedel    expresses    his    surprise    that    the    narrative 


358     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

shows  such  little  interest  in  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
sorcerer.^  No  doubt  if  it  had  done  so  it  would  have  been 
quite  in  accordance  with  a  fictitious  story,  concluding  as  we 
might  expect  it  to  conclude.  But  this  is  by  no  means  the 
only  place  in  the  Acts  where  the  reserve  of  the  writer  marks 
the  truthfulness  of  his  narrative.  He  fixes  attention  upon 
the  main  points,  and  we  have  the  defeat  of  the  Magian  and 
the  conversion  of  the  pro-consul. 

But  this  episode  is  one  of  the  many  passages  in  which  we 

are  asked  to  find  parallels  between   the  deeds  of  St.   Peter 

and   St.    Paul    in    accordance    with   the   supposed    tendency 

of  this   Book  of  the   Acts.      Both    St.    Peter   and    St.    Paul 

perform    a   miracle  in   their   infliction    of  punishment — both 

confute  a  sorcerer,  both  are  interested  in  converting  a  high 

Roman  official."      And  so  we  are  thus  asked   to  believe  that 

three  alleged  parallels — the  death  of  Ananias  and   Sapphira, 

the  discomfiture  of  Simon  Magus,  the  conversion  of  Cornelius 

— taken  from  three  different  episodes  in   St.   Peter's  career, 

are  here  combined   in   St.   Paul's  career  at  Cyprus,  and  in  a 

few  graphic  verses  by  St.  Luke.     Surely  this  is  an  instance 

of  a  critic  finding  what  he  wishes  to  find,  and  it  would  certainly 

never  occur  to  the  plain  reader  that  St.  Luke  was  instituting 

and    emphasising    a   parallel    between     three     incidents     in 

St.  Peter's  career  and  three  incidents  in   that  of   St.  Paul. 

The  fact  is  that  this  alleged  series  of  parallelisms  is  played 

out ;  it  is  out  of  date,  and  Dr.   Schmiedel,  and  those  who 

still    adopt    it,    are  defending  a  "  tendency "    which  has  in 

reality  no  existence.      If  an   author    had    been    concocting 

this    wonderful   series  of  parallelisms,    why,    we    may    well 

ask,  has  he  omitted  the  crowning  parallelism  of  all  ?     Why 

has    he    not    brought    St.    Peter  and  St.  Paul    together   as 

martyrs  in   Rome  ? 

'  Art,  "  Bar-jesus,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  i.  481. 

2  So,  too,  Schmiedel  in  Art.  cited  ;  and  cf.,  with  the  narrative  here, 
Acts  V.  i-io,  viii.  18-24,  "^^  ^  ^- 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY        359 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  surely  nothing  strange  in  the 
fact  that  some  points  of  likeness,  some  closeness  of  com- 
parison, should  be  found  in  the  lives  of  two  great  missionary 
preachers  living  in  the  same  period,  under  the  same  Empire, 
and  traversing  to  some  extent  the  same  ground,  coming  into 
contact  with  the  same  classes  of  people.  All  this  may  be 
fairly  maintained  without  taking  into  additional  account  the 
many  marks  of  an  historical  character  in  the  narrative  of  the 
Acts.  There  is,  e.g.,  the  careful  accuracy  of  the  writer  in  the 
term  "  pro-consul,"  in  his  name,  Sergius  Paulus,  witnessed  to 
by  Mommsen  and  by  one  critic  after  another  of  the  first  rank. 
There  is  the  figure  of  the  Magian,  which  might  easily  have 
found  a  place  amidst  the  varied  comites  of  the  pro-consul's 
suite.  There  is,  too,  the  presence  of  medical  terms,  which 
seem  to  imply  the  careful  hand  and  eye  of  St.  Luke.  To 
what  desperate  straits  Dr.  Schmiedel  and  Dr.  Clemen  are 
reduced  in  dealing  with  this  narrative  it  is  not  difficult  to 
see.  The  latter,  e.g.,  cannot  refuse  to  acknowledge  an 
historical  kernel  in  the  episode.  But  his  view  is  that  the 
Magian  was  threatened  with  a  divine  punishment  by  Paul  and 
Barnabas  for  his  spiritual  blindness,  and  that,  as  he  may  have 
become  blind  later  on  in  life,  this  calamity  was  supposed  to 
be  the  result  of  the  malediction  of  the  missionaries. 
It  is  the  old  story  :  the  historical  is  perforce  admitted ; 
the  supernatural  must  be  by  any  and  every  means  excluded. 

Apart  from  this  supernatural  element.  Dr.  Clemen  here, 
as  so  often  through  his  work,  not  only  maintains  the  general 
historical  character  of  the  narrative,  but  quite  ridicules  the 
attempts  to  deny  it  {^Paulus,  i.  224). 

It  is,  of  course,  quite  possible  that  the  conversion  of 
Sergius  Paulus  may  have  further  increased  St.  Paul's  intense 
desire  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  Rome,  and  to  show  that  in  the 
heart  of  the  empire,  as  well  as  in  a  distant  province,  he  was 
not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

From  Cyprus  the  Apostles'  line  of  progress  would  natur- 


36o     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

ally  lead  them  to   Pamphylia,  and   it  is  difficult  to  believe 

that    this  course   had    not  been    fully    planned   before    they 

started  from  the  Syrian  Antioch.*      This  is  the  decided  view 

of  Professor  Ramsay  ;  but,  on   the  other  hand,   it  has  been 

recently  conjectured  that  it  was   not   until  the  missionaries 

reached  Perga  that  the  momentous  decision  was  arrived  at 

that   henceforth   to    the    Gentiles   should    be    preached    the 

unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  and  that  John   Mark  returned 

to  Jerusalem  because  he  could  not  face  the  new  conditions 

of  the   work.      But  however  this   may  be,  the  narrative  of 

the  Acts  lends  likelihood  to  the  impression  that  something 

unexpected  changed  the  Apostles'  plans,  and  prevented  them 

from   preaching   in    Perga,   although    they   did   so   on   their 

return  journey.      It  is  quite  possible  that  St.  Paul   may  have 

been  seized  with  a  sudden  illness  in   the  low-lying  districts 

of  Pamphylia,  in  which  the  climate  was  always  so  enervating, 

and  that  he  had  been   obliged   to    seek   a   higher    country, 

naturally  the  Pisidian   Antioch,  for  his  health's  sake.      If  we 

accept   the    S.    Galatian    theory,^  and   locate    the    Churches 

of  this  first  missionary  journey  in  the  Roman   province   of 

Galatia,  it  is,  of  course,  quite  reasonable  to  see  in  the  words 

of   the    Galatian    Epistle,   "  Ye    know    that  because    of   an 

infirmity  of  the  flesh,  I   preached  unto  you  the  first  time " 

(iv.  13,  R.V.),  a  reference  to  this  illness.      But  whatever  may 

have  been   the  cause   why  the   missionaries    hurried    on    to 

Antioch,  it  is  certain   that  no  place  could  have  been   more 

congenial  to  St.  Paul,  not  only  for  his  health's,  but  also  for 

his  work's  sake.      Antioch  was  not  only  a  Roman   colony, 

but  it  was  a  great  and  important  centre  of  commercial  life,  as 

also  of  civil  and  military  administration,  and  it  was  thus  just 

the  kind  of  place  in  which  the   keen  eye  of  St.   Paul  would 

•Art.  "Pamphylia"  and  "Perga,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  p.  659.  Dr. 
Chase,  Credibility  of  Acts,  p.  88,  takes  a  different  view. 

*  J.  Weiss  and  C.  Clemen  may  now  be  added  to  the  supporters  of 
this  view  ;  so,  too,  Von  Soden,  Urchristliche  Liter aturgeschichte,  pp. 
30-1  (1905). 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       361 

see  a  splendid  vantage-ground  for  the  furtherance  and 
spread  of  his  message.  Such  a  choice  of  place  would  be 
fully  characteristic  of  the  Apostle's  missionary  methods.  At 
all  events  the  issue  justified  the  selection  ;  for  with  the 
exception  of  Corinth,  another  great  commercial  centre,  the 
preaching  of  the  Apostles  was  more  successful  at  Antioch 
than  in  any  other  city  (cf.  Acts  xiii.  44,  48-9)/  Possibly 
this  success  was  helped  forward  by  the  fact  that  the  teaching 
of  the  Gospel  did  not  touch  the  fortunes  of  the  Gentiles  at 
Antioch,  as  was  afterwards  the  case  at  Philippi  and  Ephesus. 
If  we  pass  to  the  consideration  of  St.  Paul's  address  to 
the  Jews  of  Pisidian  Antioch,  we  are  at  once  struck  by 
the  fact  that  if  a  romancer  had  wished  to  construct  such 
a  Pauline  sermon,  he  had  no  model  to  help  him  in  the 
Apostle's  own  writings.  We  have,  of  course  in  St.  Paul's 
Epistles  passages  in  which  he  addresses  Gentiles  and 
passages  in  which  he  addresses  Jews  ;  but  no  Epistle  (as  Dr. 
Chase  well  reminds  us)  gives  us  at  length  St.  Paul's  first 
exposition  of  his  gospel  to  Jews,  and  to  Jews  alone.  No 
doubt  it  is  easy  to  say  that  the  speech  at  Antioch  resembles 
the  earlier  speech  of  St.  Stephen  or  the  addresses  of  St. 
Peter,  and  to  point  to  this  similarity  as  a  proof  of  its  fictitious 
character.^  But  with  regard  to  the  words  of  St.  Stephen,  it  is 
only  in  the  earlier  parts  of  his  speech  that  any  resemblance  can 
be  found,  and  there  is  surely  nothing  strange  in  this  when  we 
remember  the  ample  evidence  that  the  historical  element 
played  a  very  important  part  in  Jewish  speeches.^  Thus 
Samuel  recapitulates,  as  it  were,  the  history  of  his  nation 
in  his  vindication  before  the  assembled  people  of  God's 
righteousness  ;  and  in  his  warning,  like  that  of  St.  Stephen, 
he  is  mindful  that  the  blame  would  rest  upon  his  hearers  as 

*  Art.  "  Antioch,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  i.  184. 

^  See,  amongst  recent  writers,  Von  Soden,  Urchristliche  Literatur- 
geschichte,  p.  125  (1905). 

^  See  Speaker's  Commentary  on  Acts  vii.  2 ;  also  Blass,  Acta 
Afostolorum,  p.  149, 


362     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

it  had  upon  their  fathers  (i  Sam.  xii.  1-12).  And  more  fully 
still  does  Nehemiah  give  us  (ix.  6-38)  the  confession  of  the 
Levites  of  God's  goodness  in  their  history  and  of  the  per- 
versity with  which  the  nation  had  cast  the  divine  law 
behind  them.  But  this  is  not  all  that  may  be  said.  The 
French  writer,  A.  Sabatier,  to  whom  we  owe  so  much  of 
interest  and  value  in  his  treatment  of  the  work  and  teaching 
of  St.  Paul,  frankly  admits  that  the  sketch  of  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  people  to  the  reign  of  David  which  marks  St.  Paul's 
missionary  discourse  at  Antioch  recalls  the  commencement 
of  St.  Stephen's  address  in  an  earlier  part  of  Acts.  But  he 
also  takes  care  to  add  that  if  the  history  is  the  same,  the 
point  of  view  from  which  it  is  treated  is  widely  different. 
In  St.  Paul's  case  the  historical  incidents  are  not  introduced, 
as  in  St.  Stephen's  speech,  to  mark  the  ingratitude  of  the 
people,  but  rather  to  trace  the  divine  promise  which  the 
Apostle  follows  in  its  course  through  the  history  of 
Israel.^ 

So  far  as  the  similarity  to  St.  Peter's  early  addresses  is 
concerned  we  may  frankly  admit  it.  What,  indeed,  was 
more  probable  than  that  such  a  similarity  should  exist? 
The  two  men  are  represented  as  addressing  for  the  first  time 
an  audience  of  their  own  countrymen  on  the  theme  that 
Jesus  was  the  Christ,  and  their  efforts  are  directed  towards 
the  same  end,  viz.  the  proof  of  this  all-important  state- 
ment. 

One  of  the  chief  further  objections  raised  is  that  St.  Paul 
would  not  have  allowed  his  own  special  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion to  occupy  such  a  small  part  of  the  discourse,  and,  in 
fact,  to  be  referred  to  only  in  one  concluding  verse.^  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  nothing  would  seem  more  natural  than 
that  the  Apostle  should  thus  lead   up  to  this  doctrine  in  a 

»  L'Apdire  Paul,  p.  8g,  3rd  edit.  (1896). 

2  Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  226.  Harnack,  Die  Missio7i  U7td  Ausbrei- 
tung  des  Christentums,  speaks,  with  some  qualification,  of  this  address 
as  a  beautiful  example  of  missionary  preaching  to  Jews. 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       363 

speech  which  represents  an  earlier  stage  of  the  teaching 
which  was  afterwards  developed  (as  we  believe)  in  the 
Galatian  Epistle  addressed  to  the  same  Pisidian  Antioch 
amongst  other  Churches.  And  here  again  Sabatier  has  done 
good  service  in  pointing  out  more  than  one  coincidence 
between  the  words  of  St.  Paul  in  this  closing  verse  of  his 
address  at  Antioch  and  his  language  elsewhere,  coincidences 
which  are  very  striking  when  the  Greek  text  in  the  two 
cases  is  considered.^ 

I  can  only  make  a  brief  reference  to  another  Continental 
critic/  who,  from  a  very  different  point  of  view,  has  recently 
examined  at  length  the  supposed  origin  of  the  speeches  in  Acts. 
He  not  only  attributes  the  sermon  before  us  in  many  respects 
to  an  imitation  of  the  address  of  St.  Stephen,  but  considers 
that  its  fundamental  thoughts  are  modelled  upon  the  address 
of  St.  Peter  to  Cornelius  and  his  friends  (Acts  x.  34-43). 
But  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  a  likeness  should  not  exist 
in  a  declaration  by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  alike  of  the  main 
facts  of  the  Gospel  history. 

It  is, however,  more  profitable  to  turn  from  these  unnecessary 
strictures  to  the  striking  points  of  coincidence  which  have 
been  noticed  between  St.  Paul's  address  in  the  synagogue  at 
Antioch  and  the  Apostle's  Epistle  to  the  Galatian  Churches. 
If,  indeed,  the  Church  of  the  Pisidian  Antioch  was  one  of  the 
Churches  of  Galatia,  nothing  was  more  likely  than  that  there 
should  be  these  points  of  likeness,  and  their  existence  is  no 
small  evidence  for  the  truthfulness  of  St.  Luke's  record  of  the 
speech.  Thus  the  whole  burden  of  the  sermon  is  to  show 
not  only  how  the  Jewish  law  was  of  a  preparatory  character, 
but  also  how  the  whole  history  of  the  people  was  the  history 

'  Cf.,  e.g.,  ovK  r]8vv7]dr]T€  iv  vofia,  with  the  phrase  to  abvvarov  tov  vofiov 
(Rom.  viii.  3) ;  and  biKmadrjvai.  constructed  with  ano,  as  in  Rom.  vi.  7  ; 
and  the  general  expression  ttcls  6  ma-revav  with  Rom.  i.  16,  iii.  22  ; 
L' Afotre  Paul,  p.  91,  3rd  edit,  (1896). 

*  Professor  Soltau,  |in  the  Zeitschrift  fiir  die  neutest.  Wissen- 
schaft,  Heft  2  (1903). 


364    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

of  a  progress  to  a  fuller  stage  of  development.  The  Epistle 
speaks  of  the  fulness  of  time  ;  the  sermon  speaks  of  John 
fulfilling  his  course,  of  God  fulfilling  His  promise.  The  verb 
expressing  the  justification  by  faith  through  Jesus  is  never 
used  in  the  Acts  except  in  this  address,  but  it  occurs  frequently 
in  the  Galatian  Epistle.  The  sermon  speaks  of  the  action  of 
the  Jewish  leaders,  how,  when  "  they  had  fulfilled  all  things 
that  were  written  of  Him,  they  took  Him  down  from  the  tree"  ; 
the  Epistle  emphasises  the  fact  that  the  hanging  on  a  tree 
was  a  necessary  step  in  the  redemption  wrought  by  Christ 
from  the  curse  of  the  law  ;  and  nowhere  except  in  this 
address  at  Antioch  does  St.  Paul  use  the  same  word  "  the 
tree "  (^uXov)  in  this  same  sense.  Many  other  instances 
could  be  given  ;  and  although  it  might  be  alleged  that  such 
fundamental  topics  touching  the  very  foundations  of  his 
gospel  must  be  naturally  found  in  every  Epistle  and  address 
which  St.  Paul  wrote  or  delivered,  we  must  remember  that 
there  is  no  such  close  and  mutual  resemblance  between  any 
other  of  St.  Paul's  addresses  and  Epistles,  and  we  may  fairly 
say  that  the  coincidences  in  this  case  are  so  striking  as  to 
make  each  of  the  two  documents  the  best  commentary  on 
the  other/ 

But  there  are  other  considerations  of  interest  connected 
with  the  speech.  St.  Paul  appeals  to  a  few  notorious  facts. 
He  makes  mention,  e.g.,  of  the  work  and  preaching  of  the 
Baptist ;  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  and  that,  too,  in  Jerusalem  by 
the  agency  of  Pilate  and  the  Jews  ;  of  the  testimony  of  the 
Apostles,  boldly  delivered  in  Jerusalem,  that  through  Jesus,  the 
risen  Saviour,  is  preached  that  which  the  Baptist  had  preached, 
and  that  which  St.  Paul  himself  was  preaching,  the  message 
common  to  the  forerunner  and  the  heralds  of  the  Gospel  alike, 
the  forgiveness  of  sins.  But,  further,  it  is  noticeable  that 
St.   Paul  emphasises  not  only  the  death  of  Christ,  but  the 

'  See  Professor  Ramsay,  Histnt-ical  Commentary  on  the  Galatians, 
pp.  399-401  ;  and  see  also  Dr.  Chase,  u.s.  p.  181-2. 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY       365 

burial  of  Christ/  There  was  no  mistake  about  the  fact  of 
the  death  :  Christ  had  lain  in  the  tomb,  but  God  raised  Him 
from  the  dead.  And  to  that  fact  there  were  witnesses, 
competent  witnesses,  who  had  not  only  come  up  with  Jesus 
from  Galilee  to  Jerusalem,  but,  as  the  R.V.  allows  us  to  read 
the  words,  "  who  are  now  His  witnesses  unto  the  people." 
The  message,  then,  was  a  living  message,  and  those  who 
witnessed  to  it  were  doing  so  in  the  very  city  in  which,  to 
all  appearance,  the  tragedy  of  the  Cross  had  finally  and  fatally 
wrecked  their  hopes. 

It  is  this  ready  and  steadfast  confidence  in  the  truth, 
unbroken  by  danger,  undisturbed  by  the  assaults  of  foes 
without  or  within  the  Church,  which  stands  in  such  marked 
contrast  to  the  halting,  hesitating,  half-hearted  confessions 
on  Christian  lips  to-day.  "  And  we  know  that  the  Son  of 
God  is  come,"  wrote  St.  John.  "  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed  "  :  it  is  the  last  recorded  testimony  of  St.  Paul, 
When  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the  early  Christian 
Apologists,  Justin  Martyr,  stood  for  trial  before  his  Roman 
judge,  he  was  asked,  "  Are  you  not  then  a  Christian  ?  " 
"  Yes,  I  am  a  Christian."  "  And  do  you  suppose  that  if 
you  are  scourged  and  beheaded,  you  will  ascend  into 
heaven  ?  "  "I  do  not  suppose  it,  I  know  it."  In  the  great 
fact,  then,  of  the  resurrection  St.  Paul  saw  the  proof,  the 
unmistakable  proof,  that  God  had  declared  this  Jesus  who 
was  crucified  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  ;  and  the  best 
commentary  on  the  Apostle's  words  at  Antioch,  as  he  spoke 
of  the  Saviour  of  the  seed  of  David,  whom  God  brought  to 
Israel  (Acts  xiii.  23),  may  be  found  in  the  opening  verses  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  There,  too,  we  have  closely 
united    the   thought   of  Jesus,   born   of  the   seed  of   David 

*  It  is  noticeable  that  in  xiii.  29  the  burial  following  upon  the  death 
of  Christ  is  treated  as  if  it  was  also  the  act  of  the  Jews  ;  and  it  is  a  fair 
inference  that  if  the  author  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel  had  been  giving  us  a 
speech  of  his  own  composition,  he  would  not  have  expressed  himself 
quite  in  this  manner  (cf.  V.  Bartlet's  note,  in  loco,  Century  Bible). 


366    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

according  to  the  flesh,  and  the  thought  of  His  Sonship,  to 
which  God  had  set  His  seal  before  the  eyes  of  men  by 
the  resurrection.  It  was  to  these  same  two  facts  that 
St.  Paul  could  appeal  in  after  years,  and  which  thus  formed 
his  first  and  his  latest  message,  "  Remember  Jesus  Christ 
raised  from  the  dead,  of  the  seed  of  David  "  (2  Tim.  ii.  8).^ 

But  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  St.  Paul  speaks  of 
God  sending  His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  the  flesh  of 
sin  (viii.  3),  so  also  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  (and,  as 
we  believe,  in  his  preaching  to  the  Church  in  the  Pisidian 
Antioch),  he  speaks  of  God  sending  forth  His  Son,  made  of 
a  woman,  made  under  the  law  (Gal.  iv.  4).  With  this  re- 
markable verse  in  the  Galatian  Epistle  Professor  Ramsay 
compares  the  words  of  the  address  in  the  synagogue  of  the 
Pisidian  Antioch.  '*  It  is  clear,"  he  says,  "  that  the  teaching 
so  briefly  summed  up  in  this  verse  is  to  be  understood  as 
already  familiar  to  the  Galatians.  Paul  is  merely  revivifying 
it  in  their  memory."  But  he  seems,  we  may  venture  to 
think,  to  go  too  far  in  taking  the  words  of  the  address  at 
Antioch  :  "  To  us  is  the  word  of  this  salvation  sent  forth  " 
(Acts  xiii.  26),  as  referring  to  the  same  teaching  as  that 
contained  in  the  verse  Gal.  iv.  4.^  The  verb  "  sent  forth  " 
in  both  places  is  no  doubt  the  same,  but  the  expression 
"  word  of  salvation "  does  not  seem  to  be  used  in  the 
mystical  sense,  as  Dr.  Ramsay  thinks,  of  "  the  word  "  in 
the  fourth  Gospel.  But  quite  apart  from  this,  it  is  important 
to  note  that  he  regards  Gal.  iv.  4  as  containing  a  summary 
of  facts  which  were  already  previously  known. 

One  other  point  may  be  noted  before  we  pass  on.  Dr. 
Harnack,  in  some  recently  published  addresses  and  essays,^ 
has  maintained  that  one  word  commonly  employed  by  us 
to-day  was  wanting  in   the  early  Christian   phraseology,  the 

'  See  Dr.  Gifford's  Commentary,  Rom.  i.  3-4. 

*  Historical  Commefitary  071  the  Galatians,  p.  397. 

"  Reden  und  Aufsdtze,  i.  307  (1904). 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY       367 

word  "  Saviour."  This  is  indeed  a  surprising  statement. 
We  remember  that  the  word  occurs  in  the  angels'  announce- 
ment of  the  birth  of  Christ,  "  There  is  born  unto  you  this 
day,  in  the  city  of  David,  a  Saviour  which  is  Christ  the 
Lord  "  (Luke  ii.  14).  But  Dr.  Harnack  suggests  to  us  that 
as  the  word  was  often  used  by  the  Greeks  and  others 
with  reference  to  their  gods,  so  from  this  pagan  source  the 
word  was  introduced  by  St.  Luke  into  his  Gospel. 

Surely  this  is  an  arbitrary  supposition.  To  say  nothing  of 
the  fact  that  the  word  occurs  twice  in  the  writings  of  St.  John 
(iv.  42  and  i  John  iv.  14),  it  is  used  in  this  first  missionary 
address  of  St.  Paul,  where  we  read  of  a  Saviour  Jesus.  And 
if  it  is  said  that  St.  Luke,  as  the  writer  of  the  Acts,  puts  the 
word  into  Paul's  mouth,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  used 
in  one  of  the  early  addresses  of  St.  Peter  (Acts  v.  31),  in  a 
portion  of  the  book,  that  is,  which  comes  to  us  confessedly 
from  a  primitive  source,  and  that  it  is  used  again  by  St.  Paul 
in  one  of  his  generally  accepted  Epistles  (Phil.  iii.  20).  More- 
over, the  cognate  noun  "  salvation  "  {aoiTiqpia)  was  one  which 
a  Jew  would  naturally  associate  with  the  Messianic  salvation 
and  deliverance  from  sin  (cf  Psalms  of  Solomon,  x.  9,  xvi.  5). 
And  if  St.  Matthew  does  not  use  the  word  "  Saviour,"  he 
at  least  takes  care  to  emphasise  the  meaning  of  the  name 
"  Jesus  "  :  "  It  is  He  that  shall  save  His  people  from  their 
sins"  (crwcret.  Matt,  i.  21).  Why  should  it  be  thought 
strange  that  St.  Paul  should  speak  of  "  a  Saviour  Jesus " 
{(TcoTrjp  ^lr}(T0v<5),  and  should  connect  the  coming  of  this  same 
Jesus,  as  he  does  in  this  address,  with  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  ?  (Acts  xiii.  24,  38). 

Two  results  are  mentioned  in  the  Acts  as  following  upon 
St.  Paul's  testimony  at  Antioch,  and  both  bear  upon  them  the 
impress  of  truth.  In  the  first  place  we  may  notice  that 
there  was  a  division  in  the  city.  The  Cross  was,  as  ever, 
hateful  to  the  Jew ;  for  him  it  had  no  beauty  that  he 
should  desire  it,  and  he  could  not  understand  that  the  new 


368     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

religion  "  should  choose  as  symbol  of  its  faith  the  rack  on 
which  a  slave  must  die."  On  the  other  hand,  there  was 
something  in  St.  Paul's  message  which  appealed  to  the 
Gentiles ;  they  were  glad  and  glorified  the  word  of  God. 
The  Cross  was  set  for  the  rise  and  fall  of  many  a  soul  in 
Antioch,  and  before  the  Cross  the  thoughts  of  many  hearts 
were  revealed.  And,  secondly,  we  notice  that  the  women 
of  Antioch  are  represented  as  exercising  an  important 
influence,  and  that,  urged  on  by  the  Jews,  they  raise  a 
persecution  against  the  Apostles.  This  action  on  the  part 
of  the  ladies  of  Antioch  is  frankly  accepted  by  the  writer 
of  the  article  on  "  Antioch  "  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.,  as  it  has 
been  often  noticed  that  it  is  strictly  in  accordance  with 
what  we  might  expect  from  the  prominent  role  played  by 
women  in   so  many  parts  of  Asia  Minor. 

But  the  first  missionary  journey  gives  us  another  striking 
address  of  St.  Paul,  delivered  to  a  very  different  audience. 
In  the  visit  of  Paul  to  Lystra,  Dr.  Clemen  finds  unmistak- 
able proofs  of  the  truth  of  the  narrative,  not  only  in  the 
notice  of  the  Temple  of  Zeus  before  the  city,  a  local  and 
undoubtedly  a  correct  touch,  but  also  in  the  naturalness 
of  the  way  in  which  the  inhabitants,  under  the  influence 
of  strong  excitement,  express  themselves  in  an  outburst  of 
their  own  native  language.^  Lystra  was  a  Roman  colony, 
but  it  stood  somewhat  retired  from  the  traffic  of  the  high- 
road ;  and  whilst  its  inhabitants  included  no  doubt  a  military 
aristocracy  and  an  educated  class,  yet  they  were  to  a  great 
extent  an  uneducated  and  superstitious  people. 

Two  things  at  least  may  be  noticed  in  St.  Paul's  address 
at  Lystra.  There  was  nothing  in  it  distinctively  Christian  : 
it  might  have  been  spoken  by  a  pious  Jew  ;  and  yet  the 
very  absence  of  Christian  phraseology  witnesses  to  the 
truthful    report  of  the  speech,  as   also   to   the    tact    of   St. 

'  See,  to  the  same  effect,  Zahn's  recent  remarks,  Der  Brief  des 
^aulus  an  die  Galater,  p.  14  (1905). 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY        369 

Paul.  This  "  natural  religion  "  of  the  address  at  Lystra  and 
its  appeal  to  the  material  benefits  of  life  would  be  likely 
to  influence  men  who  were  so  dependent  on  rain  and 
fruitful  seasons.  Or  it  may  be  that  the  Apostle's  purpose 
was  merely  to  check  an  act  of  idolatry  on  the  part  of  the 
inhabitants,  rather  than  to  preach  a  Gospel ;  or  the  speech 
may  have  been  interrupted  before  the  Christian  application 
was  enforced.  But  in  any  case  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  any  one  who  was  concocting  a  speech  for  the  Apostle 
would  have  made  it  void  of  any  Christian  reference  what- 
ever. At  the  same  time,  the  whole  narrative  shows  us  in 
the  plainest  manner  that  St.  Paul,  in  his  preaching  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Lystra,  proclaimed  something  far  higher  than 
a  creed  of  natural  theology. 

We  have  a  pathetic  notice  which  illustrates  the  success  of 
the  Apostle's  preaching  at  Lystra  in  the  words  of  Acts  xiv.  20. 
The  Lycaonians,  with  all  the  fickleness  of  a  mob,  had 
changed  their  minds,  and  at  the  instigation  of  the  Jews  had 
stoned  Paul.  Supposing  that  he  was  dead,  they  had 
dragged  him  out  of  the  city.  But  in  marked  contrast  to 
this  brutal  violence  "  the  disciples  stood  round  about  him." 
The  notice  shows  us  that  there  were  Christian  disciples  at 
Lystra  who  were  not  ashamed  to  confess  their  faith  and 
to  share  in  the  tribulation  of  the  teacher  to  whom  they 
owed   their  salvation. 

The  Apostles  pass  on  to  Derbe,  and  there,  too,  their 
preaching  is  evidently  not  in  vain,  for,  as  the  R.V.  points 
out,  "  they  made  many  disciples  "  ;  not  simply  "  had  taught 
many,"  as  the  A.V.  renders  the  words.  So,  too,  on  the 
return  journey,  we  find  Paul  and  Barnabas  entreating  those 
same  disciples  to  continue  in  the  faith,  the  faith  which 
they  had  previously  received,  and  commending  them  to  the 
Lord,  in  whom  they  had  already  believed  (such  is  the  force 
of  the   Greek). 

Amongst  the   disciples   who  stood   around    St,    Paul    at 

24 


370    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Lystra  there  is  good  reason  to  think  that  Timothy  was 
numbered  ;  and  in  a  previous  lecture  attention  has  been  drawn 
to  the  remarkable  and  apparently  undesigned  coincidence 
between  the  narrative  in  Acts  and  a  notice  in  2  Tim. 
iii.  II.  It  may  be  further  noted  that  in  the  same  Epistle 
St.  Paul  says  to  his  son  in  the  faith,  "  God  gave  us  not  a 
spirit  of  fearfulness  (or  cowardice),  but  of  power  and  love 
and  discipline  "  (i.  7).  The  virtue  of  manliness  which 
in  ancient  pagan  ethics  v/as  the  chief  of  all  the  virtues 
has  its  ideal  purified  and  ennobled  in  the  New  Testament ; 
and  a  very  thoughtful  and  recent  writer  upon  the  ethical 
teaching  of  St.  Paul  has  connected  the  possession  ^  of  this 
virtue  of  manliness  with  the  incident  before  us.  "  Wherever 
we  meet  St.  Paul,  in  the  presence  of  friends  or  foes,  of 
individuals  or  of  a  crowd,  of  a  Roman  governor  or  a 
Roman  jailer,  he  is  always  the  same  courageous  and  re- 
sourceful leader.  ...  At  Lystra  he  was  stoned  and  dragged 
out  of  the  city  as  dead.  But  the  next  day  he  went  forth 
with  Barnabas  to  Derbe.  '  And  when  they  had  preached 
the  Gospel  to  that  city  .  .  .  they  returned  to  Lystra'.  '  What 
a  glimpse  of  quiet,  unbending  courage  does  the  simple 
notice  of  the  historian  give  us !  Or  take  this  from  the 
Apostle's  own  pen  :  '  I  will  tarry  at  Ephesus  until  Pentecost, 
/or  there  are  many  adversaries  '  ( i  Cor.  xvi.  8-9).  The  very 
gravity  of  the  peril  is  only  another  reason  why  he  should 
stick  to  his  post." 

It  is  this  same  remarkable  courage  of  St.  Paul  which 
appealed  to  the  judgment  of  an  English  novelist  like 
Charles  Reade,  and  in  his  useful  little  book  on  Bid/e 
Characters  he  specially  connects  St.  Paul's  bravery  with 
this  same  incident  at  Lystra,  and  his  fearless  return  to 
the  city  where  his  foes  had  so  recently  sought  to  kill 
him.      It   is   possible,   of  course,  that  the    magistrates   may 

*  "Pagan  Virtues  in  the  Ethical  Teaching  of  St.  Paul,"  by  the  Rev. 
G.  Jackson,  Expositor,  March,  1905. 


THE   FIRST   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY        371 

have  changed  between  the  first  and  second  visit  of  the 
Apostle  to  Lystra  ;  but  even  so,  the  fact  of  his  bravery 
remains  unimpaired,  for  there  were  the  same  impulsive 
inhabitants  and  the  same  Jewish  residents  to  face. 

Before  we  pass  from  the  consideration  of  St.  Paul's  first 
missionary  journey,  we  may  ask  what  was  the  lasting  import 
of  his  message  to  those  Churches  of  Galatia  which  he  had 
already  evangelised.  We  have  seen  in  previous  lectures  that 
his  teaching,  whether  oral  or  written,  could  scarcely  have 
been  without  some  definite  references  to  the  facts  of  the  life 
of  Jesus.  This  is  clearly  pointed  out  by  J.  Weiss  and  other 
writers,  and  it  is  acknowledged,  at  least  to  some  extent,  by 
Dr.  Harnack.  But  whatever  else  St.  Paul's  message  may 
have  contained  of  references  to  a  knowledge  of  the  life  of 
Jesus,  it  was  most  certainly  the  message  of  a  crucified  Christ. 
He  appeals  to  the  Galatians  as  men  before  whose  eyes  Jesus 
Christ  had  been  openly  set  forth  crucified  (iii.  i),  and  he 
reminds  them,  in  the  closing  verses  of  his  Epistle,  that  his 
only  glory  was  in  the  Cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  (vi.  14). 
It  was  by  this  simple  message,  and  by  that  which  followed 
upon  its  acceptance,  a  death  unto  sin  and  a  deliverance  from 
the  power  of  sin,  that  the  Galatians  were  to  learn  to  live  by 
the  Spirit  and  to  walk  by  the  Spirit.  St.  Paul  himself  had 
gained  this  new  power,  and  had  entered  upon  this  new  life, 
because  he  had  himself  been  crucified  with  Christ,  because  he 
had  felt  in  his  own  experience  that,  believing  in  Him,  the 
crucified  and  risen  Saviour,  he  had  been  justified  by  faith, 
and  not  by  the  works  of  the  law.  And  so  he  could  ask  his 
Galatian  converts  a  question  which  carried  them  back  to  the 
earliest  days  of  their  Christian  life,  "  Received  ye  the  Spirit 
by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the  hearing  of  faith  ?  "  and 
that  faith  was  faith  in  a  living  Person,  in  the  Son  of  God,  who 
loved  them,  who  had  given  Himself  up  for  those  who  were 
Jews  by  nature  and  for  sinners  of  the  Gentiles  alike :  "  In 
Christ   Jesus    neither    circumcision    availeth    anything,  nor 


372     TESTIMONY  OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

uncircumcision,  but  faith  that  worketh  by  love."  This  was 
the  message  the  sound  of  which  was  to  go  forth  into  all  lands 
and  its  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  world.  And  for  those 
who  listened  to  this  Gospel  and  who  walked  by  this  rule, 
peace  and  mercy  would  be  upon  them,  since  they  were,  whether 
Jews  or  Gentiles,  bond  or  free,  the  true,  the  spiritual  Israel 
of  God  (Gal.  vi.  i6)}  This  was  the  Gospel  of  a  kingdom  rich 
in  grace  from  God  the  Father  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
this  was  the  Gospel  of  life,  since  the  very  scars  which  marked 
St.  Paul  as  the  slave  of  Jesus  (Gal.  vi.  17),  revealed  the 
working  of  a  law  in  his  members,  a  law  which  Christ  Him- 
self had  proclaimed  :  "  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it, 
and  he  that  loseth  his  life  for  My  sake  shall  find  it." 

In  a  famous  old  Norman  cathedral  there  is  a  Greek  cross, 
on  which  are  inscribed  the  four  simple  Latin  words,  "  Rex, 
Lex,  Dux,  Lux  "  ;  and  the  Cross  may  be  for  us  to-day  what 
it  was  for  St.  Paul,  what  it  was  for  his  Galatian  Christians, 
what  it  has  been  for  twenty  centuries  of  history,  the 
sovereign  law  of  human  life  ;  and  in  obedience  to  that  law, 
the  Cross  becomes  not  only  the  guide  of  life,  but  the  light 
of  life. 

'  It  is  noteworthy  that  Professor  Bacon,  who  speaks  of  the  serious 
exceptions  which  he  finds  himself  obliged  to  take  to  the  accuracy  of 
St.  Luke's  story  of  the  first  missionary  journey,  admits  that,  in  spite  of 
all,  the  light  that  story  sheds  is  considerable.  It  shows  us  the  Syrian 
Church,  by  this  great  enterprise  of  Barnabas  and  Paul,  giving  practical 
realisation  to  the  dream  of  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  and  he 
sees  in  the  Syrian  Antioch  the  cradle  of  a  new  world-religion  {Story  of 
St.  Paul,  p.  105  [1905]). 


LECTURE   XVIII 

THE   APOSTOLIC  COUNCIL:    THE   SECOND 
MISSIONARY  JOURNEY. 

THE  interval  between  St.  Paul's  first  and  second 
missionary  journeys  was  marked  by  an  event  which 
concerned  the  whole  future  life  and  development  of  the 
Christian  Church — the  Apostolic  Council.  From  the  day 
that  Paul  and  Barnabas  had  turned  to  the  Gentiles  in  the 
Pisidian  Antioch,  their  preaching  had  been  blessed,  and 
signs  and  wonders  done  by  them  testified  to  the  accom- 
panying grace  of  God.  But  the  door  of  faith  which  was 
opened  to  the  Gentiles,  was  it  to  be  an  open  door  or  a  door 
narrowed  by  at  least  one  irremovable  obstacle  ?  "  Except 
ye  be  circumcised  according  to  the  custom  of  Moses,  ye 
cannot  be  saved."  Such  was  the  doctrine  which  St.  Paul 
and  the  Church  of  the  Syrian  Antioch  were  being  asked  to 
endorse.  The  emissaries  of  the  Pharisees  had  come  down 
from  Judaea  to  teach  it.  Henceforth,  if  such  a  doctrine  was 
enforced,  Gentiles  might  be  admitted  to  the  Church  of  Christ, 
but  their  salvation  must  be  regarded  as  bound  up  with,  and 
entirely  dependent  upon,  the  doctrine  in  question. 

We  cannot  doubt  that  St.  Paul  and  the  brethren  in 
Antioch  would  feel  that  such  a  state  of  things  would  be 
fatal  to  the  peace  and  progress  of  the  Church.^      Moreover, 

'  Whether  we  endorse  the  Bezan  text  or  not,  it  gives  us  in  this  place 
a  good  description  of  St.  Paul's  attitude.  For  a  good  commentary  upon 
it  see  Mr.  Rackham,  Acts,  p.  243. 

373 


374    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

we  should  remember  that  many  modern  critics,  as  we  noted 
in  an  earlier  lecture,  regard  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians  as  one  of  his  earliest,  if  not  his  earliest  writing. 
It  is  placed,  for  example,  by  the  distinguished  Romanist 
theologian.  Dr.  V.  Weber,  after  Acts  xiv.  28,  i.e.  before  the 
meeting  of  the  Apostolic  Council.^  St.  Paul  then  had 
already  encountered  Jewish  emissaries,  the  subverters  of 
souls,  in  Galatia ;  he  had  already  proclaimed  "  in  Christ  Jesus 
neither  circumcision  availeth  anything,  nor  uncircumcision,  but 
a  new  creature."  Certainly  such  language  as  that  which 
meets  us  in  Gal.  vi.  12,  "They  compel  you  to  be  circumcised," 
is  more  intelligible  before  the  Apostolic  Council  than 
after   it. 

Of  course,  this  early  date  requires  us  to  identify  St. 
Paul's  visit  to  Jerusalem  in  Gal.  ii.  i-io  not  with  his  going 
up  to  the  capital  for  the  Apostolic  Council,  but  with  the 
earlier  visit  at  the  time  of  the  famine  in  Acts  xi.  29  and  xii. 
25.  But  if  we  follow  not  only  recent  conservative  critics,  as, 
e.g.,  Dr.  Zahn  and  Dr.  Chase,  but  writers  of  a  very  different 
school,  as,  e.g.,  Dr.  Schmiedel  and  Dr.  Clemen,  and  identify 
Gal.  ii.  I -10  with  the  Apostolic  Council  in  Acts  xv.,  we 
note  that  St.  Paul  speaks  distinctly  of  a  gospel  which  he 
had  laid  before  the  Gentiles  (Gal.  ii.  2)  ;  and  that  gospel  of 
justification  by  faith  contained  in  the  Galatian  Epistle,  and, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  Acts  xiii.,  is  as  far  as  possible  removed 
from  any  insistence  upon  the  obligation  of  circumcision  for 
Gentile  converts. 

Now  in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.  Professor  Schmiedel  has  given  us 
at  great  length  his  version  of  the  Apostolic  Council,  and  he 
does  so,  as  we  might  expect,  with  a  deliberate  attack  upon 
the  account  given  us  of  the  Council  in  the  Acts.  He  points 
out,  it  is  true,  that  Acts  xv.  and  Gal.  ii.  can  only  be  meant 
to  refer  to  the  same  event  ;  but  we  wonder,  at  the  end  of  his 

'  Die    Abfassung    des     Galaterbriefs    vor    dem    Afostelkotizil, 
pp.  91,  286,  289  (1900). 


THE  SECOND  MISSIONARY  JOURNEY      375 

criticism,  as  to  how  much,  or  rather  as  to  how  little,  is  left  to 
us  upon  which  we  can  depend  in  St.  Luke's  record.  But 
one  or  two  remarks  may  be  made  upon  this  criticism  of 
Dr.  Schmiedel's.  He  objects,  e.g.^  that  in  Galatians  St.  Paul 
treats  with  the  other  Apostles  as  an  equal,  but  in  the  Acts  as 
an  inferior.  But  is  this  so  ?  It  was  nothing  strange,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  was  perfectly  natural,  that  a  solution  of 
a  common  and  pressing  difficulty  should  be  found  in  an 
appeal  to  the  mother  Church  at  Jerusalem,  and  that  in  an 
assembly  held  in  Jerusalem  St.  Peter  and  St.  James,  who 
seemed  to  be  pillars  (Gal.  ii.  9),  should  occupy  a  prominent 
place.  Dr.  Schmiedel  further  objects  to  the  addresses  which 
are  represented  to  have  been  spoken  by  St.  Peter  and  St. 
James.  But  both  addresses  bear  upon  them  the  stamp  of 
truth  :  St.  Peter's  impatient  and  generous  character,  and  the 
striking  coincidence  with  some  of  his  words  elsewhere,  e.g. 
the  phrase,  "  God  that  knoweth  the  hearts,"  used  by  him 
alone  in  the  New  Testament  as  an  epithet  of  God  ;  the 
practical  and  peaceable  wisdom  of  St.  James,  as  shown  in 
the  letter  of  the  Council ;  his  utterances  so  thoroughly 
Hebraic  in  their  conception  and  language  ;  the  remarkable 
points  of  likeness  between  the  wording  of  the  Eirenicon  and 
the  words  of  the  Epistle  attributed  to  James,  the  Lord's 
brother  ;  the  same  verbal  description  of  the  Judaisers  in 
the  circular  letter  of  the  Council  as  those  "  who  have 
troubled  you  "  as  is  twice  given  of  the  same  enemies  in  the 
Galatian  Epistle  (i.  7  and  v.  10)  ; — these  and  other  indications 
of  truthfulness  might  easily  be  multiplied.^ 

But  without  dwelling  upon  the  points  in  the  addresses 
delivered  in  face  of  this  great  crisis  in  the  Church,  there  was 
one  method  of  appeal  the  force  of  which  was  felt  and 
recognised  by  St.  Paul  and  the  pillar  Apostles  alike — the 
appeal   to    facts.       The   grace   of  God    to   which    Paul   and 

'  See  these  points  ably  drawn  out  by  Mr.  Rackham,  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  p.  254  flf. 


376    TESTIMONY  OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

Barnabas  had  commended  their  brethren  as  they  passed 
from  place  to  place  had  been  abundantly  poured  forth  upon 
the  two  missionaries  who  had  been  content  to  hazard  their 
own  lives. 

No  doubt  the  result  of  the  Council  may  be  best  described  as 
a  compromise.^  Certain  injunctions  were  still  laid  upon  the 
Gentile  converts,  but  not  the  grievous  yoke  upon  which  the 
Judaising  party  had  in.sisted.  St.  Paul's  preaching  among 
the  Gentiles  was  to  be  ackowledged  by  the  Church  as  no 
less  a  divine  work  than  St.  Peter's  preaching  to  them  of  the 
circumcision.  In  such  a  compromise  St.  Paul  and  the  other 
Apostles  might  well  feel  the  constraining  power  of  the  love 
which  was  the  very  bond  of  peace  and  of  all  virtues  ;  and  as 
we  read  the  pathetic  words,  the  appeal  made  to  him  by  his 
brethren  in  the  Apostolic  office,  with  which  he  closes  his 
account  of  his  visit  to  the  Council,  "  Only  they  would  that  we 
should  remember  the  poor"  (Gal.  ii.  lo),  we  recall  how  St.  Paul, 
in  response  to  that  appeal,  was  ready,  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  to  stir  up  his  Churches  to  the  recognition  of  the 
duty  and  privileges  of  Christian  fellowship,  and  how  a 
greater  than  St.  Paul  had  said,  "  The  poor  ye  have  always 
with  you,  and  when  ye  will,  ye  can  do  them  good."  If 
the  pillar  Apostles  at  Jerusalem  never  forgot  this  injunction, 
it  is  certain  that  St.  Paul,  for  his  part,  never  failed  to  catch 
its  spirit.  The  testimony  of  St.  Paul  before  the  first 
Christian  Council  went  far  to  restore  comparative  rest  and 
peace  to  the  Church  life  in  Antioch.  The  letter  from  the 
Church  at  Jerusalem,  dispatched  by  emissaries  so  trusted  as 
Judas  and  Silas,  was  to  the  distracted  Christians  a  letter  of 
consolation  and  also  of  exultation.^     But  already  the  large 

'  See,  for  a  recent  and  able  account  of  the  historical  character  of  the 
narrative,  identifying  Gal.  ii.  with  Acts  xv.,  Art.  "  Paulus  "  (Zahn)  in 
Herzog's  Realencyclo;padie,  3rd  edit.,  Heft  141,  p.  79(1904). 

-  After  the  words  "  from  which  if  ye  keep  yourselves,  ye  shall  do 
well,"  the  Bezan  text  adds,  "going  on  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  In  such 
words,  as  Mr.  Rackham  well  remarks,  u.s.  p.  256,  lies  the  essence  of  the 


THE  SECOND   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY     377 

and  generous  heart  of  St.  Paul  was  feeling  in  a  sense  the 
care  of  all  his  Churches,  and  he  desires  to  visit  with 
Barnabas  the  brethren  in  the  different  towns  of  his  first 
missionary  journey,  and  to  see  how  they  fared. 

It  is  a  pathetic  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  truthful  statement 
in  the  Acts  that  in  this  proposed  journey  Barnabas  never 
shared.  The  recollections,  perhaps,  of  an  earlier  friendship 
in  Jerusalem  constrained  Barnabas  to  desire  the  presence  of 
Mark.  But  for  the  time  Mark  had  forfeited  the  confidence 
of  St.  Paul,  and  the  Gentile  Apostle  saw  in  Silas  a  Roman 
citizen  (it  would  seem)  and  one  of  the  first  men  in  the 
Jerusalem  Church,  a  more  acceptable  and  promising  fellow 
worker.  In  later  days  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
both  Barnabas  and  Mark  regained  the  friendship  and  the 
confidence  of  St.  Paul,  which  were  for  the  present  so  strained. 

"  In  the  first  soreness  of  separation  each  turned  to  the 
home  of  his  family,"  writes  Dr.  Swete.^  Whilst  Paul  went  by 
land  through  the  Cilician  gates,  Barnabas  sailed  with  Mark 
to  Cyprus.  Nothing  is  told  us  in  the  Acts  of  the  later 
history  of  Barnabas  or  of  Mark,  and  all  that  we  gather  from 
it  is  that  more  labourers  went  forth  into  the  harvest :  Barnabas 
and  Mark  on  the  one  hand,  Paul  and  Silas  on  the  other. 

One  of  the  first  things  to  be  mentioned  in  St.  Paul's 
second  missionary  journey  is  the  loyalty  which  marked  his 
relation  to  the  Jerusalem  compact  and  so  to  the  life  of  the 
Church.  He  delivers  the  decree  to  the  Churches  which 
he  had  founded  on  his  previous  journey,  so  that  they  also 
received  the  decision,  no  less  than  the  Churches  of  Syria  and 
Cilicia,  which  had  been  specially  mentioned  in  the  Apostolic 
letter.'^ 

whole  matter.  That,  too,  is  St.  Paul's  conclusion  in  his  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians.  Neither  circumcision  nor  uncircumcision  is  anything, 
but  life  in  the  Spirit :  "  Walk  in  the  Spirit." 

'  St.  Mark,  p.  xviii. 

2  Cf.  Expositor's  Greek  Testament,  ii.  337,  and  Mr.  Rackham,  u.s. 
p.  270. 


378    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

If  St.  Paul  had  been  left  to  his  own  guidance,  we  can 
scarcely  doubt  that  he  would  have  found  his  way  to  Ephesus 
in  the  earlier  part  of  this  second  missionary  journey.  But 
another  and  a  higher  guidance,  to  which  St.  Paul  never  failed 
to  submit  himself,  controlled  his  steps.  Asia  and  Bithynia 
were  alike  forbidden.  But  as  the  Apostle  gazed  at  the 
opposite  shores  of  Macedonia  from  Troas,  he  may  well  have 
wondered  if  by  the  will  of  God  he  would  be  called  to  cross 
the  narrow  sea  which  separated  him  from  that  western  Roman 
province  in  which  his  work  was  to  be  so  wonderfully  blessed. 
A  vision  of  the  night  resolved  the  Apostle's  doubts,  and  very 
graphically  does  the  R.V.  present  the  scene  :  "  And  a  vision 
appeared  to  Paul  in  the  night ;  there  was  a  man  of  Macedonia 
standing,  beseeching  him,  and  saying.  Come  over  into 
Macedonia  and  help  us  "  (Acts  xvi.  9). 

The  one  Greek  word  which  marked  the  voyage  to  the 
Macedonian  shore  as  swift  and  sure  ("  we  made  a  straight 
course,"  ev^vSpo/xTjo-ajuev),  might  fitly  describe  a  journey  in 
which  the  Apostle  would  see  a  harbinger  of  coming  success  ; 
and,  as  we  know,  the  sequel  justified  the  omen,  and  the 
Churches  of  Macedonia  remained  dearest  to  St.  Paul's  heart. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  sphere  of  his  work  in 
which  St.  Paul's  testimony  had  richer  or  more  extensive 
results  in  relation  to  the  Gospel  and  the  life  of  the  Church 
than  in  the  Roman  province  which  he  now  reached.  Let 
us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  historical  setting  of  St.  Paul's 
visit  to  Macedonia.  Some  of  the  notes  of  accuracy  in  the 
account  are  so  clear  that  there  can  scarcely  be  any  mistake 
about  them. 

The  position,  e.g.,  of  independence  and  prominence 
occupied  by  women  both  in  Philippi  and  in  Beroea,  is  quite 
in  accordance  with  what  we  know  from  inscriptions  of  the 
honourable  place  assigned  to  women  in  Macedonia.^  And 
this  same  note  of  trustworthiness  in  the  record  marks  the 
'  See,  amongst  recent  writers,  Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  258. 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY     379 

position  which  is  also  assigned  to  women  in  the  Pisidian 
Antioch  (Acts  xiii.  50),  a  notice  strictly  in  accordance  with 
our  knowledge  of  Phrygia  and  Asia  Minor  in  general. 

So,  again,  the  description  of  Lydia  reminds  us  of  the 
trade-guilds  so  characteristic  of  the  geographical  Lydia.  It 
is  quite  possible  that  Lydia  acted  as  agent  for  some  great 
firm  of  dyers.  Thyatira,  in  northern  Lydia,  from  whence 
she  came,  possessed,  as  the  inscriptions  again  inform  us, 
various  kinds  of  guilds,  not  only  of  dyers,  but  of  potters 
and  loom-makers.^ 

Moreover,  the  labour  of  recent  historians  has  enabled  us 
to  see  that  no  error  can  be  alleged  against  the  description 
which  St.  Luke  gives  of  Philippi.  We  have  remarked,  in  a 
previous  lecture,  upon  this  point,  and  upon  the  probability 
that  St.  Luke  may  have  in  mind  the  title  of  "  first "  given  to 
a  first-class  city,  and  that  he  may  be  thus  showing  his 
acquaintance  with  the  rivalries  of  Greek  cities  in  gaining  the 
rank  of  first,  second,  or  even  a  lower  class.^ 

Other  indications  of  accuracy  meet  us  as  we  proceed  with 
the  narrative  ;  for  example,  the  baffled  owners  of  the  slave- 
girl,  seeking  a  specious  revenge  for  their  pecuniary  losses  ; 
the  tumultous  haste  of  the  crowd  in  which  St.  Paul's  appeal 
to  his  Roman  citizenship  may  well  have  passed  unheeded  ; 
the  fussiness  of  the  magistrates  in  a  Roman  colony  like 
Philippi  ;  the  little  band  of  Jewish  proselytes  gathering  so 
naturally  by  the  river-side  for  prayer ;  the  title  given  to  the 
politarchs  at  Thessalonica  ;  the  charge  of  treason  brought 
against  the  Apostles  both  at  Philippi  and  Thessalonica  ;  the 
phrase  "  taking  security," — all    this    and    much   else   brings 

'  Clemen,  u.s.,  and  in  Encycl.  Btbl.,  Art.  "  Lydia  "  and  "  Thyatira." 
^  There  are,  of  course,  other  explanations  of  St.  Luke's  words.  Dr. 
Clemen,  in  his  recent  book,  advocates  that  of  Mr.  Turner,  to  which 
reference  was  made  in  Lecture  VIIL,  Paulus,  i.  258  (npatTT]  ttjs 
being  changed  into  Trparr^s).  It  is  also  noteworthy  that  Dr.  Clemen 
sees  no  difficulty  in  the  title  given  to  the  magistrates  at  Philippi,  u.s. 
p.  25q.  See,  further,  Journal  of  Theol.  Studies,  1899,  p.  114,  and 
Cicero,  De  leg.  agr.,  ii.  34,  93. 


38o    TESTIMONY  OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

before   us   a  scene   full   of  life   and    reality,   rich   with    the 
impress  of  first-hand  knowledge  and  truth. 

What  is  the  objection  raised  against  a  narrative  so  full  of 
striking  testimonies  to  the  genuineness  of  the  record  ? 
Chiefly,  as  we  might  expect,  the  miraculous  element  which 
is  seen  in  the  earthquake  and  the  escape  from  prison.  It 
is  true  that  we  sometimes  find  that  the  story  is  said  to  be 
modelled  on  the  story  of  the  earlier  liberation  of  St.  Peter, 
or  it  is  asserted  that  it  must  have  been  borrowed  from  some 
classical  incident  in  a  play  of  Euripides  ;  but  still  it  is  rejected 
chiefly,  it  would  seem,  because  of  the  miraculous  element 
which  it  undoubtedly  contains.  A  further  objection  is  that  St. 
Paul  would  not  have  spoken  as  he  did  to  the  Thessalonians 
(i  ii.  2)  of  his  shameful  treatment  at  Philippi,  if  he  had  been 
so  miraculously  delivered  there.  But  in  a  short  Epistle  the 
Apostle  would  scarcely  do  more  than  refer  somewhat  briefly 
to  his  sufferings  at  Philippi,  which,  however,  he  speaks  of  as 
well.known  ,to  the  Thessalonians.  It  is  worth  looking  for 
a  moment  at  Dr.  Schmiedel's  treatment  of  the  incident  in 
question.  He  rejects,  of  course,  the  miraculous  interposition 
and  liberation  ;  but  at  the  end  of  his  article  on  "  Acts  "  in  the 
Encycl.  Bibl.  he  pens  these  remarkable  words  :  "  Particularly 
beautiful  figures  are  those  of  Lydia  and  the  jailer  at  Philippi. 
The  jailer  knows  that  most  important  question  of  religion, 
What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  (xvi.  30) ;  and  Peter  also  (iv.  12), 
as  well  as  Paul,  expresses  the  conviction  that  Christianity 
alone  has  a  satisfactory  answer  to  give."  This  is  a 
remarkable  acknowledgment,  and  also  a  remarkable  interpre- 
tation of  Dr.  Schmiedel  of  the  old  question,  which  has  been 
sometimes  so  differently  treated,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved  ? " 

But  what  becomes  of  the  description  of  the  jailer,  of  his 
trembling  for  fear  ?  what  becomes  of  the  imperative 
urgency  of  his  question,  unless  some  event  in  the  narrative 
led   up  to  it  and  explained   it?       It  is,  of  course,  easy  to 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY     381 

allege  that  this  narrative,  with  its  marvellous  incidents,  is 
freely  constructed  by  the  editor  of  Acts,  based,  no  doubt, 
upon  certain  traditional  facts.  But  it  is  surely  difficult  to 
have  any  patience  with  these  repeated  attempts  to  eliminate 
everything  in  a  narrative  which  transcends  the  ordinary 
experiences  of  human  life.  St.  Luke,  as  we  have  every 
reason  to  believe,  and  as  Dr.  Clemen  allows,  was  with  St. 
Paul  at  Philippi,  and  probably  remained  on  there  during 
St.  Paul's  absence.  He  had,  therefore,  every  opportunity 
to  know  and  to  verify  the  facts  which  he  so  vividly 
relates. 

In  his  most  valuable  introduction  to  the  Philippians 
Bishop  Lightfoot  points  out  that  Philippi,  and  the  accounts 
connected  with  it  in  the  sacred  pages,  present  us  with  a 
picture  of  the  universality  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  its  method 
and  its  power  of  appeal  to  every  social  grade  of  human  life. 
The  purple-dealer  and  proselytess  of  Thyatira  ;  the  native 
slave-girl  with  the  divining  spirit  ;  the  Roman  jailer — all  alike 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  new  faith,  and  they  are 
representatives  of  three  different  races  :  the  one  an  Asiatic, 
the  other  a  Greek,  the  third  a  Roman.^ 

Whether  the  slave-girl  was  a  Greek  is  perhaps  more  than 
we  can  safely  affirm,  but  at  least  we  may  say  that  the 
principal  figures  at  Philippi  are  the  woman  and  the  slave, 
and  that  Christianity  ranks  amongst  its  noblest  triumphs 
the  amelioration  and  elevation  of  womanhood  and  the 
emancipation  of  countless  human  beings  from  the  hard  lot 
of  slavery.^  For  the  Jews,  indeed,  the  woman  was  neither 
to  learn  the  law  nor  to  teach  it ;  she  could  give  no  witness 
in  court  except  in  certain  cases,  and  Gentiles,  women, 
and  slaves  were  classed  together  as  of  a  lower  religious 
status.  Of  Greek  literature  it  may  be  said  that  it  was 
full   of   attacks   on    women  ;    and    Aristotle    could   describe 

'  Philippians,  p.  54. 

*  Dr.  Taylor,  Sayings  of  the  Jewish  Fathers,  p.  140,  2nd  edit. 


382     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

both  women  and  slaves  in  words  of  worse  significance  than 
contempt.^ 

But  in  the  little  Church  assembled  in  the  house  of  the 
Christian  purple-seller  at  Philippi,  Lydia,  too,  could  claim, 
no  less  than  any  other  member  of  the  Christian  community, 
to  be  "  faithful  in  the  Lord,"  in  the  same  Lord  who  was 
rich  indeed  to  all  who  called  upon  Him.  It  may  be 
further  said  that  the  conversions  in  the  Philippian  Church 
are  typical  also  in  another  respect.  The  religion  of  the 
family,  the  religion  of  the  home,  the  hallowing  of  family 
life,  this  is  the  lesson  taught  us  as  we  read  of  Lydia  and 
her  household,  of  the  jailer  and  all  that  were  in  his  house. 
It  was  this  which  made  Tertullian  give  us  his  bright 
picture  of  Christian  marriage,  in  which  he  represents  husband 
and  wife  as  together  in  prayer,  in  Church,  at  God's  feast, 
in  persecutions,  in  times  of  repose — a  picture  rendered  all 
the  more  remarkable  when  we  remember  Tertullian's  own 
strong  predilection  in  favour  of  celibacy.  It  was  this  which 
enabled  St.  Clement  of  Alexandria  to  see  in  the  united 
prayers  of  father,  mother,  and  child  a  fulfilment  of  the 
divine  promise,  "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together 
in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."  ^  And, 
to  pass  to  our  own  modern  days,  it  was  this  which  called 
forth  those  prophetic  words  of  Dean  Church,  "  When  home 
life,  with  its  sanctities,  its  simplicity,  its  calm  and  deep  joys 
and  sorrows,  ceases  to  have   its  charm  for  us    in    England, 

'  "We  do,  of  course,  still  talk  about  the  'republics'  of  ancient 
Greece  and  Rome ;  but  such  a  word,  in  such  a  connection,  is  only  dust 
in  the  eyes  of  those  who  do  not  know.  Republic,  indeed  !  Why,  in 
the  city  of  Rome,  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  era,  out  of  a 
population  of  1,610,000,  the  historian  Mommsen  tells  us  900,000  were 
slaves.  Think  of  it !  three  out  of  five  of  the  men  and  women  whom 
St.  Paul  passed  in  the  streets  of  the  imperial  city  slaves,  with  less 
rights  in  the  eyes  of  the  law  than  your  dog!  The  same  is  true  of 
Athens."  {The  Difference  Christ  has,  made,  p.  11,  by  the  Rev.  G. 
Jackson,  in  the  series  What  is  Christianity  ?  1905.) 

3  See  Dr.  Bright,  Primitive  Church  Life,  p.  140;  E.  de  Pressens6, 
Early  Years  of  Christianity,  iv.  227,  E.T. 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY     383 

the  greatest  break-up  and  catastrophe  in  English  history- 
will  be  not  far  off."  ^  The  words  were  written  a  generation 
ago,  but  who  shall  say  that  they  have  no  warning  voice 
for  us  to-day  ? 

But    St.    Paul's    teaching   was   not   only  rich    in    elevat- 
ing   the    position   of   the    woman    and    the    slave,    and    in 
transforming    the    meaning    of    the    word    family    (for    al- 
though  the   slave   might    be   ranked   as   a   member  of  the 
familia,  we  cannot    conceive  of   him    as    in    the    Christian 
Church  "  a    brother  beloved  ")  ;   it   was    also   to  show  that 
Christianity  could  ennoble  and  sanctify  honest  labour,  and 
that  it  could  insist  upon  what  was  in   fact  the  true  dignity 
of  work.      It  may  be  said  that  Judaism,  unlike  Greece  and 
Rome,    had    already    held    manual    labour    in    the    highest 
esteem.     But   it   must    be   remembered    that    there   was    a 
time   in   Jewish  history  when    this   had   not   been   so ;  and 
although,   in   the  days  of  our    Lord's   Advent,  the  dignity 
of  labour  was  no  doubt  fully  recognised  and  enforced,  this 
change   from   the  way  in  which  labour  had  been  regarded 
in    the   Apocrypha,   notably    Ecclesiasticus,   seems    to   have 
been   due  to  no  religious  motive,  but  rather  to  social  and 
political  circumstances  and   considerations.^      But  in   Chris- 
tianity   the    motive   was    solely  and    distinctively    religious. 
Or  if  we  turn  to  Aristotle's  Politics,  we  see  how  he  speaks 
with  contempt  of  those  who  live  from  the  labours  of  their 
hands,  and  we   contrast    the   philosopher's   words   with  the 
exhortations  of   St.   Paul    to  the  Macedonian  workmen  in 
Thessalonica,    or     his     touching    appeal     to    the    elders    of 
Ephesus,  "  Ye  yourselves  know  that  these  hands  ministered 
unto    my    necessities,   and    to   them    that   were  with    me."  ^ 
"  Here  for  the  first  time,"  writes  Von  Dobschiitz,  "  has  the 
moral   worth   of   work    received   a   clear   expression,   which 

*  Influences  of  Christianity  (Lectures  in  St.  Paul's,  p.  133). 
^  See  Edersheim,  Jewish  Social  Life,  pp.  188,  199. 
'  Cf.  Speaker's  Commentary,  iii.  697. 


384     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

transcends  the  old  Jewish  view  in  Gen.  iii.  17";  and  he 
points  out  how,  again  and  again  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church,  men  have  forgotten,  in  social  distress  or 
in  eager  expectation  of  the  end,  the  imperative  Christian 
duty  of  work.^ 

From  the  busy  artisan  city  of  Thessalonica,  and  from 
BercEa,  where  his  converts  were  apparently  of  a  higher 
social  grade,  St.  Paul,  pursued  by  the  relentless  hatred  of 
his  fellow  countrymen,  passed  to  the  city  which  still  claimed 
to  be  the  chief  home  of  Greek  art  and  philosophy,  Athens. 
In  the  graphic  picture  of  St.  Luke,  drawn,  we  can  scarcely 
doubt,  from  St.  Paul's  own  personal  experience,  we  mark 
not  only  the  traits  so  characteristic  of  Athenian  life — its 
leisure,  its  restless  curiosity,  its  over-religiousness — but  also 
the  life  of  a  university  town  in  which  commerce  had  no 
place,  whilst  the  memories  and  traditions  of  the  past,  and 
the  presence  of  at  least  two  great  opposing  philosophic 
schools,  attracted  students  and  stimulated  discussion.  At 
a  later  period  of  this  same  first  Christian  century,  in  which 
St.  Paul  came  to  Athens,  the  city  received  the  visit  of 
a  notorious  and  pretentious  philosopher,  Apollonius  of  Tyana. 
As  he  wended  his  way  from  his  ship  to  the  city  we  read  in 
his  Life  how  Apollonius  met  many  philosophers  ;  some  were 
reading,  some  were  declaiming,  others  were  arguing  ;  all  of 
them  alike  gave  him  their  greeting.  It  is  one  touch  out 
of  many  which  enables  us  to  see  how  faithfully  St.  Luke 
hit  off  the  academic  learning  and  leisure  which  still  found  a 
home  in  Athens." 

Within   the  last  few  years  a  keen  discussion   has   arisen 
as  to  whether  St.  Paul  addressed  the  philosophers  on   Mars' 

'  See  Die  urchristlichen  Gemeviden,  p.  71  (1903). 

^  See,  further,  Peine,  Art,  "  Stoizismus  und  Christcntum  "  in  the 
Theologisches Literaturblatt,  xxvi.  7, February  7,  1905.  The  same  article 
also  points  out  how  in  this  address  at  Athens,  as  in  Romatis  i.  19, 
various  points  of  contact  with  Stoical  teaching  and  language  may 
be  illustrated,  although  acquaintance  with  the  Apocrypha  is  also 
admitted. 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY      385 

Hill  or  whether  he  was  taken  to  the  King's  Hall,  where 
the  court  of  the  Areopagus  sat.  In  the  latter  case  the 
proceedings  would  take  the  practical  form  of  a  preliminary- 
inquiry  into  the  nature  of  the  Apostle's  teaching  ;  in  the 
former  he  would  be  simply  represented  as  responding  to 
the  curiosity  of  the  Athenians  to  know  more  of  the  teaching 
which  had  already  attracted  the  crowds  which  thronged  the 
Agora.^ 

It  is  often  said  that  St.  Paul  had  no  eye  for  the  beauty  of 
nature,  and  he  has  sometimes  been  compared  in  this  respect 
with  St.  Bernard,  of  whom  it  is  related  that  he  rode  all  day 
along  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  and  asked  in  the  evening  where 
he  was.  But  it  is  difficult  to  recall  the  varied  metaphors 
which  find  a  place  in  St.  Paul's  letters  without  entertaining 
some  doubt  as  to  the  correctness  of  this  view.  So,  too,  when 
he  speaks  at  Athens  :  the  world  for  him  is  still  God's  world  ; 
he  calls  it  the  cosmos,  a  thing  of  order,  as  the  Stoics  around 
him  would  recognise  ;  and  it  is  surely  not  without  significance 
that  this  is  the  only  time  the  word  "  cosmos  "  occurs  in  the 
Acts.  And  not  only  so,  but  St.  Paul  could  speak  of  a 
divine  order  in  the  world  of  human  life  no  less  than  in  the 
world  of  nature  :   God  had  made  of  one  every  nation  of  men 

'  Dr.  Chase  is  at  issue  with  Professor  Ramsay  as  to  the  site  of  St. 
Paul's  address.  But  although  he  argues  with  great  force  against  the 
supposition  of  a  formal  religious  tribunal,  we  may  venture  to  think  that 
he  goes  somewhat  too  far  in  a  counter-direction,  and  that  he  scarcely 
disposes  of  the  difficulties  which  Professor  Ramsay  so  carefully 
enumerates  against  the  supposition  that  the  speech  of  St.  Paul  was 
delivered  on  the  summit  of  the  Areopagus,  and  not  before  the  court 
in  the  Stoa  Basileios. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  further  noted  that  a  controversy  has 
arisen  over  the  interpretation  given  by  Dr.  Chase  to  the  word 
deicndainovfaTepovs.  He  regards  the  word  as  expressive  of  rebuke  not 
wholly  unmingled  with  contempt.  Yet  it  is  not  only  difficult  to  believe 
that  St.  Paul  would  thus  commence  a  speech  in  which  he  wished  to 
gam  a  hearing,  but  the  context  (Acts  xvii.  24),  where  the  verb 
ev(re/3eiTe  is  regarded  by  him  as  one  result  of  this  deia-iBai^ovLa,  would 
certainly  suggest  that  the  adjective  is  used  here  in  a  good  or  at  least 
a  neutral  sense. 

25 


386    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  was  a  truth  which 
sorely  needed  to  be  remembered  by  these  Athenians,  boasting 
to  be  sprung  from  the  soil.  Little  did  they  anticipate  that 
not  to  a  Greek,  not  to  a  Roman,  but  to  a  Jew,  the  world  would 
owe  the  promulgation,  and,  what  was  still  more,  the  preserva- 
tion of  an  everlasting  bond  of  holiest  brotherhood,  which 
would  unite  in  one  the  children  of  God  which  were  scattered 
abroad.  All  through  the  course  of  human  history  this 
divine  order  might  be  traced  ;  the  history  of  nations  was  not 
a  mighty  maze  without  a  plan,  it  was  in  reality  the  good 
hand  of  our  God  upon  those  who  were  made  in  His  image. 

And  the  purpose  which  ran  through  the  ages,  what  was  it  ? 
That  men  should  realise  the  nearness  of  God  and  their  own 
divine  sonship  ;  that  they  should  not  always  be  groping 
after  Him,  as  in  an  outer  darkness,  for  they  were  also  His 
offspring.  And  the  hymn  of  the  heathen  poet,  no  less  than 
the  Jewish  Book  of  Wisdom,  could  speak  of  the  divine 
Father  and  of  His  closeness  to  each  one  of  His  children.^ 
"  Come  and  behold  the  works  of  the  Lord."  The  words 
of  the  Hebrew  psalmist  were  chosen  by  the  Father  of 
German  history,  Sebastian  Frank,  as  a  motto  for  his  book, 
which  he  entitled  A  Bible  of  History.  Can  we  doubt  that 
they  express  the  mind  and  the  spirit  of  St.  Paul  as  he  too 
looked  back  and  read  the  page  of  history  ?  "  Come  and 
behold  the  works  of  the  Lord." 

Let  us  pause  for  a  moment  at  this  mention  of  the  Book 
of  Wisdom.  Some  notable  points  of  contact  have  been 
pointed  out  between  this  book  and  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.^  But  it  is  a  matter  of  considerable  interest  that 
points  of  contact  with  the  same  book  may  be  found    in  the 

'  Perhaps  St.  Paul  may  have  said,  "  as  certain  of  our  poets  have  said," 
to  intimate  that  he,  too,  could  "take  his  place  as  a  Greek  among 
Greeks."  On  the  manner  in  which  the  same  truths  are  set  forth  in  Acts 
xvii.  23  ff,  and  in  Rom.  i.  19  ff,  see  Westcott,  The  Gospel  of  Life, 
p.  200. 

^  Sanday  &  Headlam,  Romans,  p.  51. 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY     387 

speeches  attributed  by  St.  Luke  to  St.  Paul  both  at  Athens 
and  at  Lystra.  What  is  the  inference  ?  It  is  surely  not 
unfair  to  conclude  that  the  existence  of  such  a  joint  literary 
characteristic  confirms  the  conclusion  that  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  and  the  two  Pauline  speeches  are  the  production  of 
one  and  the  same  mind.^  Van  Manen  also  acknowledges 
this  acquaintance  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  with  the 
Book  of  Wisdom,  but  he  would  argue  from  this  against  the 
Jewish  nationality  of  the  writer  of  the  Epistle.  But  there 
is  surely  no  reason  why  the  Jew  St.  Paul  should  not  have 
been  acquainted  with  the  Book  of  Wisdom.  The  author  of 
that  book,  in  spite  of  his  Hellenic  culture,  is  a  Jew,  and  a  Jew 
of  a  stiff  orthodox  fashion.  And  St.  Paul,  whose  acquaint- 
ance with  Stoical  philosophy  may  easily  have  been  acquired 
at  Tarsus,  so  famous  for  its  Stoical  teacheis,  may  well  have 
been  specially  attracted  by  a  book  so  closely  allied  to  the 
same  system  of  philosophy. 

But  this  testimony  of  St.  Paul  to  the  power  and  the 
providence  of  God,  what  answer  had  it  already  received  in 
Athens  ?  "  He  beheld  the  city  full  of  idols."  It  was  this 
which  provoked  the  spirit  of  the  Apostle  within  him,  and  it 
is  no  small  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  narrative  that  with  such 
a  sight  before  his  eyes  St.  Paul's  words  at  Athens  contain 
no  mention  of  the  beauty  of  the  scene  around  him,  of  the 
glories  of  art,  of  silver  and  gold,  the  work  of  men's  hands. 

But  still  there  was  something  left  ;  and  to  that  St.  Paul 
appealed  :  there  was  the  instinct,  nay,  the  desire  of  worship, 
the  recognition  of  some  unknown  and  higher  power.  St. 
Paul  does  not  say,  "  What  therefore  ye  ignorantly  worship," 
but,  "  What  ye  worship  in  ignorance,  this  set  I  forth  unto 
you."  The  God  whom  St.  Paul  proclaimed  was  a  righteous 
Judge,  strong  and  patient,  provoked  indeed  every  day,  but 
overlooking  hitherto  the  times  of  men's  ignorance.  But 
because   righteousness  was   in    truth   the   habitation   of  His 

*  Chase,  Credibility  of  Acts  ^  p.  222. 


388     TESTIMONY   OF  ST.    PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

throne,  St.  Paul  could  see  in  Him  not  only  a  God  of  moral 
order,  a  moral  ruler  in  the  history  of  the  world,  but  a  God 
of  judgment  in  the  appointment  of  a  day  in  which  He 
would  judge  the  world  by  the  Man  whom  he  had 
ordained. 

In  view  of  that  judgment,  St.  Paul  had  but  one  command 
for  all  men  everywhere  (as  the  original  so  pointedly  expresses 
the  words),  that  they  should  repent.  Did  they  ask  for  an 
assurance  that  the  world's  history  was  to  find  its  consumma- 
tion in  a  day  of  judgment  ?  That  assurance  had  already 
been  given,  and  given  once  for  all,  in  the  fact  that  the 
minister  and  mediator  of  that  judgment  had  been  raised  by 
God  from  the  dead. 

Repentance,  resurrection,  what  had  the  men  who  were 
listening  to  St.  Paul  to  do  with  either  ?  The  Stoic,  who 
found  his  counterpart,  according  to  Josephus,  in  the  Pharisee, 
might  well  thank  God  that  he  was  not  as  other  men  ;  the 
Epicurean  might  regret  that  some  whim  or  instinct  had 
failed  to  obtain  the  satisfaction  which  might  make  his  life 
one  rounded  whole  ;  but  repentance  which  St.  Paul  proclaimed 
as  the  one  great  divine  command  for  wise  and  simple  alike, 
what  did  he,  what  could  he  know  of  its  meaning  or  its 
necessity  ?  Resurrection,  judgment,  had  not  these  philoso- 
phers put  away  childish  things,  and  were  they  there  to 
listen  to  those  stories  of  the  other  world  at  which  every 
schoolboy  had  learnt  to  smile  ?  It  is  perhaps  possible,  if 
we  adopt  one  little  touch  introduced  into  the  narrative  by 
the  R.V.,  that  worthier  feelings  than  those  of  ridicule  and 
contempt  were  stirred  in  some  of  the  audience  of  St.  Paul, 
and  they  said  "  we  will  hear  thee  concerning  this  yet  again  " 
(R.V.).  But  no  word  of  the  historian  leads  us  for  a  moment 
to  suppose  that  any  great  success  attended  St.  Paul's  efforts 
in  Athens. 

But  at  least  this  sobriety  and  restraint  in  the  narrative  is 
a  remarkable  evidence  of   its    truthfulness,   a  sobriety   and 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY      389 

restraint  which  is  evident  in  the  speech  and  in  the  sequel 
alike  ;  and  Dr.  Clemen  candidly  remarks  upon  this  element 
of  truthfulness.  It  is  not,  moreover,  without  importance  to 
point  out  that,  whilst  Professor  Soltau  {u.s.  p.  133)  finds  that 
some  of  the  addresses  in  the  Acts  are  imitated  from  St.  Paul's 
letters,  as,  ^.^.,  in  the  speech  at  Athens,  Acts  xvii.  22-31  from 
Rom.  i.  11-14,  Dr.  Von  Soden,  on  the  other  hand,  finds  one 
of  his  weightiest  objections  to  the  addresses  in  the  fact  that 
they  are  devoid  in  his  judgment  of  any  relationship  with  St. 
Paul's  Epistles.^ 

Here  was  a  splendid  opportunity  for  a  forger  ;  for  the  first 
time  St.  Paul  had  come  into  contact  with  the  learning  and 
culture  of  Greece  ;  and  it  would  have  been  easy  and  natural 
enough  to  represent  the  scene  on  Mars'  Hill  as  a  great  triumph 
for  the  preaching  of  the  word  ;  here,  too,  would  be  an 
opportunity  to  find  a  parallel  to  St.  Peter's  successful 
preaching  with  its  thousands  of  converts  in  St.  Paul's  bringing 
to  naught  the  wisdom  of  this  world.  An  ingenious  attempt 
has  indeed  been  recently  made  to  show  that  St.  Paul's 
preaching  at  Athens,  if  judged  by  a  modern  standard,  might 
be  called  successful,  and  that  if  one  or  two  notable  conversions 
were  effected  by  a  modern  sermon,  the  preacher  would  be 
more  than  satisfied.  But  the  mention  of  St.  Paul's  converts 
at  Athens  does  not  necessarily  follow  in  the  narrative  as  the 
immediate  result  of  a  single  sermon.  And  if  the  statement 
"  Howbeit  certain  believed  "  is  to  be  regarded  as  representing 
the  sum  total  of  conversions,  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  the 
Apostle's  teaching  had  made  much  way. 

It  has  sometimes  been  thought  that  a  modern  discovery 
marks  the  former  existence  of  a  synagogue  in  Athens. 
On  a  slab  found  at  the  foot  of  Hymettus  we  read,  "  This 
is  the  gate  of  the  Lord  :  the  righteous  shall  enter  into 
it"  ^    (Ps.    cxviii.   20).      But   even  if   we    see    in   this    slab 

1  Urchristliche  Liter aturgeschichtCy  p.  125. 

3  Encycl  Bibl.,  Art.  "  Athens,"  i.  383  ;  and  in  Hastings'  B.D.  i,  197. 


390    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

a  Christian,  and  not  a  Jewish,  inscription,  since  it  dates 
apparently  from  the  third  or  fourth  century,  it  by  no  means 
loses  its  interest.  On  the  contrary,  it  indicates  in  this  case 
the  existence  of  a  Christian  Church  in  Athens  in  the  earlier 
days  of  the  Church's  life,  and  it  helps  us  to  see  that  even  if 
St.  Paul  never  visited  Athens  again,  yet  his  testimony  had 
not  been  altogether  in  vain.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how 
much  Christianity  owes  to  Athens.  From  Athens,  e.g.,  came 
the  earliest  Christian  apologist  An'stides,  and  as  we  read  his 
Apology  we  cannot  help  being  sometimes  reminded  in  its 
wording  of  the  Christian  philosophy  taught  by  St.  Paul 
before  the  Areopagus.  Thus  Aristides  points  out  that  the 
philosophers  err  in  asserting  that  any  such  thing  as  de- 
ficiency can  be  present  to  deity,  as  when  they  say  that  He 
receives  sacrifice  and  requires  burnt-offering  and  libations 
and  immolations  of  men  and  temples.  But  God,  he  adds, 
is  not  in  need,  and  none  of  these  things  is  necessary  to 
Him.  Christians  do  not  worship  idols  made  in  the  image 
of  man,  but  they  pray  that  those  in  error  may  repent,  that 
so  they  may  appear  before  the  awful  judgment  which, 
through  Jesus  the  Messiah,  will  come  upon  the  whole  human 
race. 

The  latter  words  remind  us  of  the  one  distinctively 
Christian  statement  in  St.  Paul's  speech  at  Athens,  viz.  that 
God  would  judge  the  world  by  that  Man  whom  He  had  or- 
dained, and  that  He  had  given  assurance  of  it  by  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  from  the  dead.  Here,  again,  we  have  a  mark 
of  restraint  and  truthfulness  which  a  second-century  writer 
would  have  found  it  hard  to  maintain. 

It  may  be  added  that  St.  Paul  may  have  introduced  this 
special  Christian  statement  for  more  reasons  than  one. 
No  doubt  it  brought  his  teaching  to  a  sharp  issue  with  that 
of  the  philosophers  before  him,  whether  Stoic  or  Epicurean. 
But  more  than  this,  there  is  one  Epistle  of  St.  Paul's  of 
which  it  has  been  truly  said  that  in  it  the  Apostle's  preach- 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY      391 

ing   seems    mainly    to    have    turned    upon    one    point,    the 
approaching  judgment  and  the  coming  of  Christ. 

Now  this  first  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  was  written 
shortly  after  St.  Paul's  visit  to  Athens  and  during  his  stay 
at  Corinth  ;  and  whilst  one  characteristic  note  of  the  Apostle's 
teaching  in  this  Epistle  is  thus  found  to  be  emphasised  in 
his  speech  at  Athens,  it  may  be  observed  that  another 
characteristic  note  from  the  teaching  of  the  same  Epistle 
occurs  in  his  earlier  speech  at  Lystra.  In  the  Epistle  he 
exhorts  the  Thessalonians  "  to  turn  unto  God  from  idols  to 
serve  a  living  and  true  God  "  ;  in  almost  similar  words  he 
warns  the  inhabitants  of  Lystra  "  to  turn  from  these  vain 
things  unto  the  living  God."  In  each  case  St.  Paul  com- 
mences his  work  amongst  Gentiles  by  a  similar  bidding. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  both  the  narrative  in  the  Acts 
and  the  statements  of  St.  Paul  in  i  Corinthians  indicate 
that,  as  the  Apostle  passed  to  Corinth,  he  determined  no 
longer  to  appeal  to  philosophy  as  a  philosopher,  but  to 
preach  the  simple  tidings  of  a  Gospel  which  possessed  indeed 
a  sancta  simplicitas,  and  which  was  the  power  of  God  and 
the  wisdom  of  God.  We  may  see  in  Acts  xviii.  5,  as 
Professor  Ramsay  maintains,  a  picture  of  the  Apostle  wholly 
absorbed  in  preaching,  in  teaching  the  word  (so,  too, 
McGiffert,  Apostolic  Age,  p.  263).  And  this  picture  would  be 
quite  in  harmony  with  that  which  is  presented  to  us  by  St. 
Paul's  own  declarations  to  the  Corinthian  Church.  Thus  he 
tells  us  how  he  came  among  the  Corinthians  in  much  fear 
and  trembling  ;  how  his  preaching  was  free  from  all  rhetorical 
art  and  human  wisdom  ;  how  he  determined,  in  short,  to 
know  nothing  among  them  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified. 

"  Where  is  wise  man  ?  where  is  scribe  ?  "  (i  Cor.  i.  20)  he 
asks.      Greek  sophist  and  Jewish  scribe  alike  had  failed   to 
grasp,  with  all  their  subtlety  and  disputatious  argument,  the 
1  See  Dr.  Chase,  Credibility  of  Acts,  pp.  197,  231,  233. 


392     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

meaning  of  the  Cross  and  its  divine  power  to  save  and  bless. 
What  had  caused  the  insistence  upon  this  one  theme  in  the 
Apostle's  efforts  to  win  souls  at  Corinth  ?  If  we  interpret  it 
as  due  to  the  consciousness  that  at  Athens  other  topics 
had  found  too  prominent  a  place,  then  this  remarkable  change 
in  his  utterances  at  Corinth  affords  corroboration  of  the 
truthfulness  of  the  account  of  his  previous  experiences  in 
Athens. 

But  however  this  may  be,  the  Apostle's  reference  to  his 
fear  and  much  trembling  amongst  the  Corinthians  is  in 
striking  accordance  with  the  notice  in  Acts  xviii.  9  :  "  And 
the  Lord  said  unto  Paul  in  the  night  by  a  vision,  Be  not 
afraid,  but  speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace."  Nowhere  was 
there  more  need  of  a  bold  and  consistent  witness  than  in 
this  miniature  world  of  Corinth.  In  many  respects  Corinth 
differed  from  Athens  :  the  latter  was  the  educational  centre, 
with  all  its  old  and  memorable  traditions  of  the  history  of 
the  past  ;  but  Corinth  was  the  actual  centre  not  only 
of  government  as  the  capital,  but  of  trade,  as  so  easily 
accessible  by  land  and   sea  alike. 

If  we  glance  for  a  moment  at  some  of  the  characteristic 
features  of  Corinth,  we  can  see  something  of  the  place  in 
which  Paul  was  now  called  upon  to  bear  his  witness — a 
place  marked  not  only  by  the  intellectual  restlessness  of 
Athens,  but  also  proverbial  for  its  manifold  forms  of  vice. 
Corinth  was,  in  fact,  a  city  which  combined  in  itself  some 
of  the  most  marked  characteristics  of  the  busiest  and  the 
gayest  of  European  capitals,  full  of  every  nationality,  the 
home  of  every  pretentious,  intellectual  craze,  Greek,  Roman, 
Oriental  in  one  ;  the  worshipper  of  wealth  and  pleasure  ;  the 
harbour  for  the  commerce  of  East  and  West  alike.  In 
the  streets  and  in  the  schools  of  Corinth  Paul's  witness  was 
to  be  borne  ;  no  doubt  there  was  cause  for  fear  and  trembling, 
and  yet  in  the  midst  of  his  anxiety  and  apprehension  the 
Apostle  is  cheered  by  the  message  of  hope  for  himself  and 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY      393 

his  work — a  message  which  has  cheered  so  many  Christian 
labourers  in  London  to-day  :  "  Be  not  afraid  ...  I  am  with 
thee  ;   I  have  much  people  in  this  city." 

No  doubt  these  Corinthian  converts  were  still  so  tied  and 
bound  in  some  respects  by  the  fatal  associations  around 
them  that  it  was  difficult  for  them,  as  i  Corinthians  plainly 
shows,  to  rejoice  in  the  fulness  of  the  freedom  which  Christ 
bestowed,  to  rise  at  once  and  entirely  above  the  conventional 
views  as  to  the  sins  of  the  flesh,  to  overcome  the  spirit  of 
quarrelsomeness  and  the  love  of  litigation  so  common  amongst 
the  Greeks,  to  quell  the  keen  and  subtle  doubts  which 
surrounded  even  the  great  fact  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
Lord. 

But  still,  whilst  we  are  not  called  upon  to  regard  these 
early  Christian  Churches  as  entirely  Churches  of  saints  in 
name  and  in  deed,  yet  a  greater  and  more  speedy  result 
followed  St.  Paul's  preaching  than  could  have  been  humanly 
expected. 

Now  it  is  just  this  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  in  moral 
and  spiritual  power  which  stands  out  to-day,  in  spite  of  all 
adverse  criticism,  as  the  clearest  and  most  significant  outcome 
of  St.  Paul's  work  in  Corinth.  The  very  address  of  St. 
Paul's  two  Epistles,  "  To  the  Church  of  God  which  is  at 
Corinth,"  is  it  not  in  itself  what  Bengel  long  ago  called 
it,  ingens  paradoxon,  a  mighty  paradox  ?  And  yet  that 
paradox  was  true.  Amongst  the  Corinthians,  a  name  which 
even  in  our  modern  language  has  become  a  synonym  for 
profligate  idleness,  there  was  a  Church  of  the  living  God. 

Two  recent  attempts  to  describe  early  Christianity  in 
Corinth  enable  us  to  realise  this,  although  the  two  writers 
do  not  treat  the  subject  entirely  from  the  same  point  of 
view.^ 

1  Urchristentum  in  Kormth,  by  Dr.  G.  Hollmann  (1903),  and  Die 
urchristlichen  Gemeinden,  by  Professor  E.  Von  Dobschiitz  (1902). 
See  also  his  Probleme  des  apost.  Zeitalters  (1904). 


394     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Thus  we  have  been  assured  at  length  how  the  intel- 
lectualism,  the  overweening  pride,  the  love  of  parties,  the 
unseemly  behaviour  at  feasts  of  charity,  the  value  attached 
to  ecstatic  worship  and  magical  efficacy,  all  may  be  traced 
back  to  Greek  and  pagan  influences.  But  after  everything 
has  been  said  in  this  direction  that  can  be  said,  what  then  ? 
We  have  the  simultaneous  confession  so  strikingly  made 
that  it  is  just  here,  in  this  manifest  contrast  between  the 
old  religions  and  the  new  faith,  that  the  true  greatness  of 
St.  Paul  is  seen.  St.  Paul  esteems  the  gift  of  tongues  as 
something  of  high  value  ;  he  thanks  God  for  it.  And  yet 
the  same  Apostle  in  the  Psalm  of  Love  of  the  New  Testament 
(i  Cor.  xiii.),  which  takes  its  place  amongst  the  noblest 
passages  of  the  world's  literature,  praises  love  as  that  which 
is  highest  and  as  the  goal  of  all  things.  Here,  so  it  is  main- 
tained, is  the  undying  service  of  St.  Paul,  that  he  regarded 
the  Spirit  not  merely  as  having  a  sphere  in  the  world 
beyond  the  grave  but  as  an  inward  and  moral  principle  for 
us  here  and  now.  By  him  religion  and  morality  are  thus 
joined  together,  and  in  so  doing  the  Apostle  made  in  truth 
no  new  discovery  ;  he  was  but  following  in  the  steps  of  that 
greater  One,  who  once  in  Galilee  had  united  religion  and 
morality  in  a  manner  which  can  never  be  surpassed.^  We 
cannot  endorse  such  a  judgment  in  all  its  particulars,  but 
we  can  see  in  it,  at  any  rate,  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
unique  power  of  the  faith  which  Paul  preached — a  power 
and  a  faith  which  we  owe  to  Christ  our  Lord. 

But  the  same  writer  shows  us  that  this  is  by  no  means 
all.  What,  he  asks,  is  the  new  fact  which  separated  the 
Corinthian  Christians  from  their  fellow  citizens  in  Corinth? 
It  was  the  word  of  the  Cross,  which  was  the  centre  of 
St.  Paul's  preaching.  And  those  who  called  upon  the  name 
of  the  Lord  were  also  those  who  awaited  the  revelation  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  (i.Cor.  i.  7).  What  a  message  of 
1   Urchristentum  in  Kbrinth,  Dr.  HoUmann,  p.  29. 


THE   SECOND   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY      395 

hope  and  power  for  the  poor  and  sorrowful,  for  the  lonely 
folk  of  whom  the  Church  was  so  largely  composed  !  Such 
men  were  rich,  though  poor,  rich  in  the  word,  rich  in  know- 
ledge. But  Christianity,  as  St.  Paul  fully  recognised, 
demands  more  than  knowledge  ;  it  demands  the  penetration 
of  the  whole  life  with  the  fundamental  thoughts  of  the 
Christian  faith.  And  this  lesson  could  only  be  learnt  by 
degrees,  and  even  in  our  modern  days  this  is  the  hardest 
task  to  effect  in  the  religious  life.  And  yet,  in  spite  of 
this  difficulty,  the  Apostle  is  not  concerned  as  to  the  result. 
Why  ?  because  of  the  conviction  that  every  Christian  had 
received  a  gift,  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ.  This,  in  a 
word,  was  the  new  power  which  could  make  men  and  women 
young  in  the  faith  endure  unto  the  end.  The  faithfulness 
of  God  was  the  pledge  that  the  result  would  be  even  so. 

In  the  same  manner  one  of  the  best-known  of  modern 
Church  historians  in  Germany,  E.  Von  Dobschiitz,  has  recently 
emphasised  the  moral  power  of  the  Christian  faith.  But  he 
rightly  shows  much  less  inclination  than  his  fellow  country- 
man to  lay  such  excessive  stress  upon  points  of  likeness 
between  Christianity  and  other  religions.  What  we  have 
to  do,  he  urges,  is  not  merely  to  insist  upon  the  points  of 
likeness  and  contact,  but  also  upon  the  points  of  unlikeness  and 
contrast  No  doubt,  as  he  reminds  us,  Christianity  was 
an  enthusiastic  movement,  with  its  ecstatic  conditions  and  all 
kinds  of  spiritual  workings  ;  but,  more  than  this,  and  above 
all  this,  it  was  a  thorough  and  moral  renovation  which  owed 
its  power  to  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  This,"  he  adds, 
"  is  to  me  the  greatest  thing  in  Paul,  that  he  was  able  to 
raise  the  Gentile  Christian  Churches,  gathered  by  him  in 
part,  at  all  events,  out  of  the  most  worthless  grades  of 
social  life,  to  the  heights  of  Gospel  piety  and  morality.^ 

As  we  look  back  over  St.  Paul's  many  labours,  both  in 
Macedonia  and  in  Corinth,  we  recall,  it  may  be,  the  mocking 
'  Probleme  des  a^ost.  Zeitalters,  p.  79. 


396    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO    CHRIST 

words  once  uttered  by  the  early  and  bitter  opponent  of 
Christianity,  the  heathen  philosopher  Celsus  :  "  Only  sinners 
become  Christians,"  said  he,  in  contempt  and  scorn  ;  but 
we  may  also  recall  the  justification  of  the  answer  returned 
by  the  Christian  Church  :  "  Yes,  because  only  Christ  can 
transform  sinners  into  saints." 


LECTURE    XIX 

THE    THIRD   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY. 

IN  the  third  missionary  journey  of  St.  Paul,  Ephesus 
occupies  the  prominent,  the  foremost  place.  Evidently 
its  attraction  had  been  long  felt  by  the  Apostle.  In  his 
second  journey  it  was  for  him  the  city  in  which  the  East 
might  be  said  to  look  out  on  the  West,^  and  as  such  he 
thought  of  it  not  only  for  its  own  attractions,  but  as  a 
further  stage  towards  his  final  goal,  the  capital  and  the  centre 
of  the  civilised  world — Rome  itself 

At  the  close  of  this  second  journey  St.  Paul  had  passed 
from  Corinth  to  Ephesus  ;  but  his  stay  had  been  short,  and 
he  was  only  able  to  commence  the  preaching  which  was 
afterwards  to  occupy  such  a  lengthy  period.  "  If  God  will," 
he  had  promised  to  return  from  Jerusalem,  and  by  that  same 
divine  will  he  had  come  unto  Ephesus  again.  No  choice  of 
place  could  have  been  more  in  accordance  with  St.  Paul's 
usual  methods  than  that  of  Ephesus,  where  so  many  great 
commercial  roads  converged,  and  from  whence  the  crowds  of 
provincials  who  came  for  worship  or  for  trade,  or  for  both, 
could  carry  the  tidings  of  the  new  religion  to  their  homes. 

But  although  St.  Paul's  work  in  Ephesus  had  been  deferred, 
all  his  previous  labour  had  not  been  in  vain,  in  view  of  the 
great  Roman  province  Asia  and  its  renowned  capital  ; 
rather  it  is  rightly  regarded  as  a  preparation  for  Ephesus,  as 
Ephesus  in  turn  was  a  preparation  for  Rome. 

•  Ramsay,  Art.  "  Roads  and  Travel,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  v,  388. 

397 


398     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

If  Ephesus  differed  in  many  respects  from  the  cities  of 
Macedonia,  or  from  Athens  and  Corinth,  yet  St.  Paul  must 
have  found  there  evils  very  similar  to  those  which  he  had 
before  found,  and  perhaps  even  in  some  respects  more  diffi- 
cult to  combat.  As  at  Athens,  he  would  meet  men  eager 
for  philosophic  teaching,  curious  to  know  something  of  any 
new  cult ;  as  at  Athens,  he  would  find  men  with  leisure  for 
nothing  else  but  either  to  tell  or  to  hear  some  newer  thing 
(Acts  xvii.  2i) — the  school  (axoXyj)  of  Tyrannus  bore  witness 
in  its  very  name  to  the  leisure  thus  employed  ;  as  at  Athens 
and  at  Corinth,  he  would  see  Greek  art  pandering  to  the 
service  of  gods  made  with  men's  hands  ;  as  at  Corinth,  he 
would  mark  again  the  sensuality  associated  with  the  ritual 
of  a  temple  and  a  worship  still  Greek  in  name  ;  and  as  at 
Philippi,  and  in  a  far  more  widespread  form,  he  would  note 
the  debasing  influence  of  Oriental  quackery  and  superstition. 

In  such  a  city,  where  such  influences  were  rife,  although 
the  Apostle  found  disciples  who  had  been  carefully  pre- 
pared by  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  and  although  on  his  arrival 
the  little  band  who  had  already  been  baptized  with  John's 
baptism  were  baptized  into  the  name  of  Jesus,  it  is  surely 
not  surprising  that  God  should  work  special  miracles  by  the 
hands  of  St.  Paul  (Acts  xix.  ii).  A  further  and  convincing 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power  was  needed  to 
show  not  only  to  Greeks,  but  to  Jews  also,  that  there  was  at 
Ephesus,  as  elsewhere,  one  Name,  and  one  only,  given  under 
heaven,  whereby  men  must  be  saved. 

In  the  synagogue  it  is  evident  that  the  Christian  preaching 
met  with  some  considerable  success  ;  but,  as  at  Athens,  as 
at  Corinth,  a  crisis  came,  and  a  separation  had  to  be  made 
between  those  who  would  welcome  and  those  who  would  oppose 
the  kingdom  which  St.  Paul  proclaimed,  and  the  Way  which 
had  been  taught  by  Him  who  was  Himself  the  Way,  the 
Truth,  the  Life.  Henceforth,  from  the  lecture-room  of 
Tyrannus,  or  from  the  pastoral  visitation  of  house  to  house. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY       399 

the  word  of  the  Lord  was  to  sound  forth  far  and  wide 
throughout  the  province. 

But  this  wide  audience  to  which  St.  Paul  now  appealed 
had  lived  all  their  lives  amidst  the  practices  of  magical  arts 
in  a  place  which  was  itself  a  centre  of  the  study  of  magic 
formulae,  of  those  "  Ephesian  letters  "  and  spells,  symbols  of 
mystic  meaning,  the  utterance  of  which  was  regarded  as 
conferring  a  potent  charm.  Indeed,  these  so-called  "  Ephe- 
sian letters  "  were  said  to  be  of  special  efficacy  in  connection 
with  cases  of  possession  by  evil  spirits.^  Jews  as  well  as 
Greeks  were  victims  of  these  miserable  superstitions  ;  Jews, 
too,  had  their  strings  of  magical  names,  their  formulae  of 
exorcism,  their  medley  of  spells.^  And  they,  too,  had 
seen  the  successful  results  which  followed  upon  St  Paul's 
appeal  to  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Why,  then,  should 
not  they  employ  the  same  name  and  anticipate  the  same 
success  ? 

The  R.V.  brings  out  this  point  by  adding  one  little  word 
in  the  text  :  "  But  certain  also  of  the  strolling  Jews  "  (xix. 
13).  The  word  "  also  "  contrasts,  as  it  were,  the  claims  which 
the  Jewish  exorcists  made  so  rashly  and  their  use  of  a  name 
the  potency  of  which  they  had  never  felt,  with  St.  Paul's 
possession  of  a  divine  power  and  reliance  on  a  divine  Person. 
And  the  sequel  marks  this  contrast.  The  evil  spirit  prevails 
over  the  Jewish  exorcists,  and  so  masters  them  that  they 
flee  naked  and  wounded.  Jews  and  Greeks  alike  had  been 
wont  to  use  strangely  varied  names  and  spells  ;  but  now  it 
became  known  to  all,  to  Jews  and  Greeks  alike,  that  the 
name  of  Jesus  was  the  name  of  the  Lord,  a  name  not  only 
to  be  heard,  but  to  be  magnified.  To  mark  this  unique 
power  of  the  name  of  Jesus  is  the  object  of  the  startling 
episode  introduced  by  St.  Luke,  and  it  is  no  small  proof  of  the 

'  Art.  "  Exorcists,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  ii. 

"  See  Art.  "  Exorcists,"  u.s.,  and  Laible,  Jesus  Christ  in  the  Talmud, 
p.  49,  E.T. 


400     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

truth  of  the  incident  that  it  stops  where  it  does  ;  that,  in 
other  words,  it  establishes  the  pre-eminence  of  the  name  of 
Jesus  ;  but  it  adds  nothing  further  to  satisfy  curiosity  as  to 
the  victims  of  a  strange  and  masterful  power  of  evil. 

But  St.  Paul's  testimony  to  the  name  of  Jesus  had  a 
further  and  a  deeper  effect  :  "  Many  also  of  them  that  had 
believed  came,  confessing  and  declaring  their  deeds " 
(Acts  xix.  1 8).  We  are  told  that  "they  had  believed," 
but  plainly  not  with  the  heart  unto  righteousness  ;  but  now 
that  the  name  of  Jesus  was  shown  to  be  the  Name  above 
any  other  name,  such  a  proof  of  power  carried  with  it 
conviction.  It  looked  indeed  as  if  these  people,  while 
professing  a  Christian  belief,  had  still  clung  in  secret  to 
their  magic  and  their  incantations.  But  the  sacrifice  of  their 
gains  is  the  best  proof  that  they  had  now  learnt  the 
meaning  of  those  two  demands  which  Christianity  had 
made  upon  them  from  the  first :  repentance  towards  God, 
and  faith  towards  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

The  burning  of  the  parchments,  of  the  rolls  of  magical 
formulae,  is  one  of  the  many  dramatic  touches  in  the  vivid 
account  of  St.  Paul's  work  in  Ephesus,  and  we  noted  in 
a  previous  lecture  how  two  words  at  least  occur  in  the 
narrative,  the  use  of  which  is  plainly  corroborated  on  the 
papyri,  which  bear  their  witness  to  the  widespread  prevalence 
of  the  superstitious  arts  of  that  old  pagan  world.^  But 
there  were  other  dwellers  at  Ephesus  who  also  spoke  evil 
of  the  Way,  although  actuated  by  motives  differing  in 
some  respects,  at  least  in  appearance,  from  those  which 
prompted  the  Jews.  Amongst  the  latter  the  motive  was 
ostensibly  religious,  the  motive  of  an  intolerant  sect,  and 
of  a  blindness  to  see  the  truth  of  the  things  spoken  of  by 
Paul.  But  in  the  skilled  craftsmen  and  in  the  artisans 
of  Ephesus  the  Apostle  had  to  face  men  who  could  appeal 

'  See  note  in  loco  in  Expositor' s  Greek  Testament^  and,  amongst 
recent  writers,  Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  284. 


THE   THIRD    MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       401 

not  only  to  the  disrepute  brought  upon  their  reHgion,  but 
also  to  the  loss  inflicted  upon  their  pockets. 

At  Ephesus,  as  at  Lystra,  it  is  remarkable  that  this  fierce 
opposition  did  not  come  from  the  priesthood.^  They,  like 
the  Asiarchs,  may  have  been  interested  in  St.  Paul's  teaching, 
or  possibly  they  did  not  feel  in  any  acute  manner  the 
popular  danger  which  the  last  new  religion  was  destined 
to  provoke.  But  the  craftsmen  and  the  workmen  who 
gathered  round  Demetrius,  associated  with  him,  perhaps, 
in  one  of  the  many  trade  guilds,  organised  so  frequently 
in  Asia  Minor,  told  a  different  tale.  Their  business  was 
endangered,  and  as  the  Christian  teaching  gained  ground, 
there  was  a  manifest  falling  off  in  the  purchase  of  the  silver 
shrines  of  the  goddess,  which  occasioned  so  much  outlay 
and  gave  employment  to  so  many  hands. 

In  quite  a  naive  manner  Demetrius  puts  this  business 
loss  first  ;  he  relegates,  as  it  were,  to  the  second  place  of 
importance  the  risk  attaching  to  the  worship  of  the  goddess, 
the  risk  that  she  should  be  made  of  no  account.  But  the 
kind  of  appeal  urged  by  Demetrius  has  always  been  specious 
and  effective.  One  of  the  most  serious  obstacles  to  the 
preaching  of  Christianity  in  Japan  came  at  first  from  those 
who  were  apprehensive  that  their  ill-gotten  gains  should 
come  into  disrepute,  like  the  trade  of  Demetrius  at  Ephesus. 
At  the  same  time,  even  if  the  words  of  Demetrius  were 
exaggerated  for  his  purpose,  his  attitude  was  in  itself  a 
remarkable  testimony  to  the  spread  and  the  influence  of 
the  Christian  teaching.  No  doubt  as  the  preaching  continued 
its  effects  would  be  felt  through  a  widening  portion  of  the 
province,  and  there  would  be  a  falling  off  in  the  number 
of  pilgrims,  and  consequently  in  the  gains  of  Demetrius  and 
the  craftsmen.  And  if  Demetrius  had  chosen,  as  seems  to 
have  been  the  case,  a  great  festival  of  the  goddess  for  the 
utterance  of  his  complaints,  we  can   easily  understand  how 

^  Cf.  Art.  "  Diana,''  Encycl.  Bibl.,  ii.  iioo. 

26 


402     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

forcibly  his  words  would  appeal  to  men  who  felt  and  knew 
that  in  honouring  their  goddess  they  were  benefiting  them- 
selves. 

There  are  few  scenes  even  in  this  latter  part  of  Acts 
more  vivid  and  lifelike  than  the  scene  which  follows  in  the 
theatre  at  Ephesus.  Not  the  least  remarkable  feature  in 
it  is  the  place  assigned  to  St.  Paul.  He  does  not  go  into 
the  theatre  to  face  the  mob,  but  conforms  to  the  wishes  of 
his  friends  that  he  should  not  so  endanger  himself  A  forger 
would  have  told  the  story  differently.  How  easy  and  how 
telling  to  describe  the  Apostle,  who  counted  not  his  life 
dear  unto  himself,  as  braving  the  angry  crowd  in  the 
theatre,  and  constraining  them  to  grant  safety  to  himself 
and  his  fellow  travellers  The  description  could  scarcely 
have  been  invented  ;  but  it  becomes  more  intelligible  if  we 
remember  that  St.  Paul's  friends  were  men  of  influence — the 
Asiarchs,  who  would  regard  the  Apostle  perhaps  as  some 
new  teacher,  one  amongst  many  such,  and  who  would  not 
be  swayed  by  the  vulgar  and  narrow  prejudices  which 
Demetrius  so  skilfully  stirred.^ 

Even  in  quarters  in  which  we  might  least  expect  it  the 
force  of  this  truthfulness  has  been  felt.  It  would  be  easy,  e.g., 
to  dwell  upon  the  characteristics  of  the  mob  so  strikingly  in 
accordance  with  those  attributed  to  it  by  the  pseudo-Heraclitus, 
himself  an  Ephesian  philosopher,  who  does  not  spare  his 
fellow  citizens  in  the  description  which  he  has  given  of  their 
exhibitions  of  unbridled  passion. 

But  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  chief  character  in  the 
scene  in  the  theatre,  that  of  the  secretary  or  the  clerk,  as  we 
may  call  him,"  who  not  only  vindicates  the  conduct  of 
St.  Paul's  friends,  and  secures  their  safety  from  attack,  but 
also  brings  the  foolish  mob  to  see  the  likely  consequences 
of  their  headstrong  folly. 

1  Art.  "Asiarchs,"  Encycl.  Bibl.,  i.  341. 

"  Art.  "Town  Clerk"  (Ramsay),  Hastings'  B.D..  iv. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       403 

It  is  worth  noting  how  the  writer  of  the  article  "  Ephesus 
in  the  Encycl.  Bibl.  is  constrained  to  acknowledge  the 
marvellous  skill  with  which  the  character  in  question  is 
drawn.  "  Owing  to  the  decay  of  popular  government  under 
the  empire,"  he  writes,  "  the  '  public  clerk  '  became  the  most 
important  of  the  three  '  recorders,'  and  the  picture  in  Acts 
of  the  '  town  clerk's '  consciousness  of  responsibility,  and 
his  influence  with  the  mob,  is  true  to  the  inscriptions"  (ii.  1303), 
where,  let  us  remember,  the  title  occurs  again  and  again. 

How    striking,    again,    is    the    introduction    of   the    Jew 

Alexander  into  the  scene  and  the  part  which  he  plays  in  the 

uproar.       The    anxiety   of  the  man  is  so  naturally  drawn, 

for  there  were   many   Jews    in    Ephesus,  and  Alexander  is 

rightly  apprehensive  that  the  mob  in  their  excitement  might 

fail  to  discriminate  between    Jew  and   Christian.      And  his 

surmise  was  correct,  for  no  less  natural  than  the  apprehension 

of  Alexander  is  the  undiscriminating  anger  of  the  mob.      Not 

even  a  ]&ysr^  to  say  nothing  of  a  Christian,  could  obtain  a 

hearing  from  them  ;  his  very  appearance  only  added  fuel  to 

the  flame,  and   the  frenzy  of  the  crowd  found  vent  in  the 

loud  cry  which  signified,  according  to  the  probable  reading, 

an   exclamation  of  devotion   to  the  goddess,  the  source  of 

their  wealth,  Great  Artemis  !      It  is  not  surprising  that  in 

the  anticipation  of  such  frenzy  by  a  mob  described  in   the 

words  of  a  philosopher  of  Ephesus  as  a  crowd  no  longer  of 

men,    but    of    beasts,^   Paul's     friends    should    have     taken 

measures  to  insure  his  safety.      This  entreaty  of  the  Christian 

disciples  was  seconded,  as  we  have  seen,  from  a  strange  quarter. 

"  Certain  of  the  chief  of  Asia,  which  were  his  friends,  sent  unto 

him    and    besought  him  not  to  adventure  himself  into  the 

theatre"  (Acts  xix.  31).      The  R.V.  has   "chief  officers   of 

Asia  "  (and  in  the  margin  "  Asiarchs") ;  and  no  doubt  reference 

^  On  the  remarkable  points  of  contact  between  the  description  of  the 
Ephesians  in  the  letters  of  pseudo-Heraclitus  of  Ephesus  and  in  the 
Acts,  see  Bishop  Gore,  Ephesians,  p.  253,  and  V.  Bartlet,  Apostolic 
Age,  p.   147. 


404     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

is  made  in  this  well-attested  title  to  the  Asiarchs,  who  were 
selected  from  the  wealthy  citizens,  owing  to  the  expenses 
which  their  terms  of  office  involved,  and  who  apparently 
formed  a  kind  of  council  responsible  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  imperial  cult,  the  worship,  that  is,  of  Rome  and  of 
the  Emperor  throughout  the  whole  province  of  Asia.  But 
if  this  is  so,  their  introduction  here  throws  a  remarkable 
light  not  only  upon  the  attitude  of  the  more  educated  classes 
towards  Christianity,  but  also  of  the  representatives  of  the 
Roman  imperial  policy  towards  the  Christian  Church.  It  is 
a  very  likely  surmise  that  they  met  in  Ephesus  at  the  time  of 
the  great  annual  festival  of  Artemis  ;  and  as  they  represented 
various  great  cities  of  the  province,  their  friendship  with 
Paul  is  the  more  remarkable.  Such  a  fact  seems  to  testify 
not  only  to  the  spread  of  the  faith  far  and  wide  outside 
Ephesus,  as  we  have  good  reason  to  believe  was  the  case, 
but  also  to  the  wonderful  power  of  St.  Paul's  own  personality. 
According  to  his  own  statement,  he  had  worked  as  a  poor 
man  at  Ephesus  to  meet  his  own  necessities  and  for  the 
maintenance  of  his  friends,  and  yet  he  had  gained  not 
merely  the  acquaintance  or  the  curious  attention,  but  the 
friendship,  of  the  leading  men  of  Asia,  men  of  high  social 
and   official   status. 

The  tolerant  attitude  of  the  Roman  officials  towards 
the  i\postle,  as  also  that  of  the  representatives  of  the 
empire,  is  well  marked  throughout  the  Acts  ;  and  we  may 
justly  suppose  that  to  show  the  wide  and  constant  prevalence 
of  this  friendly  feeling  at  the  date  of  the  Apostle's  labours 
was  one  of  St.  Luke's  main  objects  as  an  historian,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  see  why  the  frank  acknowledgment  of  such  a 
purpose  should  in  any  degree  invalidate  the  historical  value 
and   character  of  the   book.'      It   is  a  corroboration    of  the 

'  In  answer  to  the  recent  strictures  of  Von  Soden  in  this  respect,  in 
his  Urchristliche Liter aturgeschichtc,  p.  117,  seeWendt,  Die  A^ostel- 
geschichte,  p.  17. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY       40S 

truthfulness  of  the  picture  in  the  Acts  to  recall  how  in 
Smyrna  an  Asiarch  forbade  the  violence  of  the  crowd  which 
sought  to  let  loose  a  lion  on  the  aged  and  saintly  Polycarp. 

But  it  is  of  further  interest  to  note  that  some  of  the 
characters  depicted  at  Ephesus  are  reproduced,  so  to  speak, 
in  our  modern  world.  We  have  the  Asiarchs  represented 
again  in  modern  India,  in  the  regard  of  any  new  cult  with 
equanimity,  one  might  almost  say  with  friendliness  ;  and 
missionary  workers  have  not  failed  to  point  out  the  analogies 
between  Ephesus  and  its  religions  and  the  situation  of 
mission  work  in  India  in  relation  to  priests  and  people 
(Ramsay,  St.  Paul,  p.  28 1).  Demetrius,  too,  and  his  craftsmen 
have  also  their  counterpart,  as  we  have  seen,  in  our  modern 
world,  and  it  was  only,  we  may  add,  by  the  persistent 
attitude  of  a  few  Christians  in  Japan  who  had  nothing  what- 
ever to  boast  of  in  the  way  of  social  culture  or  social  status, 
that  the  evil  to  which  I  referred  was  checked  and  further 
progress   made. 

But  the  bearing  of  St.  Paul  and  his  friends,  and  the 
testimony  which  their  lives  bore  to  their  faith,  had  influenced 
not  only  the  Asiarchs  ;  they  had  had  an  effect  upon  the  most 
influential  officer  in  the  city,  the  secretary,  who  was  brought 
into  such  close  relationship  with  the  representatives  of 
the  imperial  rule.  In  a  few  words  he  declared,  without  the 
slightest  hesitation,  and  as  if  he  was  quite  aware,  in  his 
responsible  post,  that  the  statement  could  not  be  refuted,  that 
the  accused  Christians  had  been  guilty  of  no  act  of  sacrilege, 
of  no  impiety  towards  the  goddess  by  word  or  deed.  Not 
only  the  secretary's  position,  but  his  tactful  opening  remarks 
that  all  the  world  recognised  the  honour  due  to  the 
Ephesian  Artemis,  would  add  force  and  persuasiveness  to 
his  exhortation.  Moreover,  if  he  was  correct,  then  the 
danger  was  great  from  an  official  point  of  view ;  for  not  only 
was  there  no  cause  for  the  tumultuous  assembly  which  had 
collected,  but  it  was  very   possible   that   the   Roman    power 


4o6    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

might  see  in  such  an  assembly,  unusual  and  illegal,  a 
reasonable  cause  for  a  prosecution  for  sedition.  For  the 
present  no  charge  had  been  proved,  and  no  charge  or 
inquiry  could  be  made  except  in  the  pro-consul's  court  or 
in  a  legal  assembly.  The  assembly  before  him,  such  as  it 
was,  the  secretary  dismissed,  thus  following  up  his  practical 
action  by  a  practical  procedure,  and  employing  a  word, 
"  Ecclesia  "  which  might  help  to  save  the  riotous  crowd  from 
further  official  notice.^ 

St.  Paul's  work  in  Ephesus  thus  stood  interrupted,  but  it 
cannot  be  said  to  have  failed,  and  his  testimony  had  not 
been  delivered  in  vain.  Professor  Orr  rightly  asks  "  whether 
Christianity  must  not  have  become  an  exceedingly  powerful 
force  before,  in  a  city  like  Ephesus,  we  could  have  the 
adepts  in  magical  arts  bringing  their  books  and  burning  them, 
to  the  value  of  some  ;£^2,ooo  of  our  money  ;  or  before  we 
could  have  a  riot  instigated  by  Demetrius,  on  the  plea  that 
not  only  the  trade  of  shrine-making  was  brought  into  dis- 
repute, but  the  worship  of  the  great  goddess  Artemis  was 
in  peril  of  being  subverted,  not  alone  at  Ephesus,  but  almost 
throughout  all  Asia  ;  or  whether  things  must  not  have  gone 
far  to  justify  even  a  hyperbole  like  Paul's,  that  the  Gospel 
had  been  preached  in  all  creation  under  heaven,  and  was 
also  in  all  the  world  bearing  fruit  and  increasing  (Col  i.  i6, 
23,  R.V.)."  ^  The  last  words  in  this  quotation  are  taken 
from  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  and  it  would  seem  a  fair 
inference  that  the  Gospel  had  found  its  way  to  the  great 
centres  of  trade  which  might  so  easily  be  reached  from 
Ephesus.  The  letter  to  the  Colossians  also  reminds  us  that 
in  two  other  cities  in  the  Lycus  valley  Christian  communities 
had  been  formed,  in  Hierapolis  and  Laodicea.  Possibly 
Timothy  had  evangelised  the  three  cities,  as  he  is  specially 

'  See  Art.  "  Ephesus  "  (Ramsay)  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  i.  "J2t^. 
2  Neglected  Factors  in  the  Early  Progress  of  Chrzstiafitty,  p.  44 
(1899). 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY       407 

mentioned  in  the  letter  to  Colosse,  and  we  can  scarcely 
doubt  that  other  of  St.  Paul's  fellow  helpers,  men  like 
Epaphras  or  Titus,  would  assist  in  this  great  mission  work. 
It  is  indeed  quite  possible  that  the  period  of  St.  Paul's  stay 
at  Ephesus  was  signalised  by  the  foundation  of  all  the  Seven 
Churches  of  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John.  Not  only  their 
nearness  to  Ephesus,  but  their  trade  in  each  case  would  make 
communication  easy  and  practicable.^ 

Among  these  Churches  it  is  noticeable  that  this  city  of 
Hierapolis  has  been  described  as  the  place  in  which  the 
native  superstition  is  revealed  to  us  in  its  sharpest  and  most 
aggressive  form,  and  nowhere  probably  was  the  opposition 
between  the  worship  of  the  goddess  Diana  and  the  worship 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  so  strongly  accentuated.  When 
we  think  of  the  abominations  which  the  heathen  worship 
implied,  we  can  see  perhaps  a  fuller  meaning  in  the 
warnings  issued  in  the  Colossian  and  Ephesian  Epistles 
alike.' 

Yet  even  in  this  place  Christianity  had  found  a  home,  and 
Epaphras,  a  faithful  minister  in  Christ,  had  striven  that  his 
brethren  might  stand  perfect  and  fully  assured  in  all  the  will 
of  God  (Col.  iv.  12).  Although  the  adversaries  were  many, 
a  door  great  and  effectual  thus  stood  open  to  St.  Paul  and 
to  those  who  laboured  on  his  behalf,  not  only  at  Ephesus 
(i  Cor.  xvi.  9  ;  Col.  iv.  3),  but  throughout  the  province  which 
was  the  largest  and  the  richest  in  the  East. 

No  sooner  had  the  Apostle  left  Ephesus  than  another 
door  was  opened  to  him  (2  Cor.  ii.  12-13)  ;  but  for  more 
reasons  ^\an  one,  possibly  through  depression  or  ill-health, 
or  possibly  as  to  his  anxiety  as  to  news  which  Titus  would 
bring  of  the  Church  in  Corinth,  he  was  scarcely  fit  to  respond 
to  the  opportunity  at  the  moment.     Troas,  with  its  open  door, 

'  See  Art.  "  Hierapolis  "  (Ramsay)  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  ii. 
*  Art.  "  Hierapolis,"  in  Encycl.  Bibl.,  ii.  2064 ;  and  cf.  Col.  iii.  5,  16; 
Eph.  iv.  17-19,  V.  3. 


408     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

had  probably  been  evangelised  on  some  former  occasion,  and 
its  position  perhaps  afforded  a  good  field  for  fresh  mission 
work  in  the  neighbourhood.  But  however  this  may  have  been, 
St.  Paul,  in  his  anxiety  hurries  on  to  Philippi,  where  probably 
he  met  Titus,  and  gained  intelligence  as  to  how  his  severe 
letter  to  Corinth  had  been  received.  The  news  which  greeted 
him  as  to  the  state  of  things  in  Corinth  was  by  no  means 
altogether  satisfactory  ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  deal  here  with 
the  extremely  difficult  and  disputed  question  of  the  exact 
relationship  between  St.  Paul  and  his  Corinthian  converts. 

But  there  was  one  matter  evidently  very  dear  to  the 
Apostle's  heart,  the  collection  for  the  poor  saints  in  Jerusalem. 
The  two  Corinthian  Epistles  show  how  St.  Paul's  thoughts, 
in  spite  of  all  his  other  cares  and  anxieties,  were  set  upon 
this  (cf  I  Cor.  xvi.  i  ;  2  Cor.  viii.  9  ;  Rom.  xv.  25).  Two 
whole  chapters  of  2  Corinthians  are  devoted  to  enforcing  the 
need  of  a  response  to  this  great  offering  on  the  part  of  the 
Corinthian  Christians.  There  had  been  a  time,  St.  Paul 
reminds  them,  when  they  had  shown  more  readiness  than 
the  Macedonian  Churches,  but  now  there  was  a  very  grave 
danger  lest  Achaia  should  fall  behind  Macedonia.  Few  things 
are  more  striking  and  more  pathethic  in  the  account  of  this 
collection  for  the  saints  than  the  ungrudging  praise  bestowed 
by  St.  Paul  upon  the  Macedonians.  For  them  it  had  been 
a  privilege  to  give ;  they  had  not  waited  to  be  asked  ;  and 
when  we  remember  that  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that 
the  condition  of  the  whole  of  Greece  was  marked  at  the 
time  by  poverty  and  distress,  we  see  a  further  fitness  of 
meaning  in  the  Apostle's  words  when  he  refers  to  the  grace 
of  God  which  had  been  given  in  the  Churches  of  Macedonia, 
how  that,  in  much  proof  of  affliction,  the  abundance  of  their 
joy  and  their  deep  poverty  abounded  unto  the  riches  of  their 
liberality  (2  Cor.  viii.  2)}  It  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  the 
way  in  which  all  the  best  traits  of  the  Macedonian  people, 
'  See  Dean  Bernard,  Expositor' s  Greek  Testament,  iii.  84. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       409 

their  sturdy  perseverance,  their  indomitable  character,  their 
unshaken  fidelity,  were  drawn  out  by  the  message  of  the 
Gospel  and  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul. 

"  Only  they  would  that  we  should  remember  the  poor " 
(Gal.  ii.  10).  The  years  which  had  passed  since  the  Jerusalem 
Council  had  not  lessened,  but  increased,  St.  Paul's  sense  of 
the  value  and  constraining  force  of  this  bond  of  holiest 
brotherhood  in  uniting  the  scattered  Churches  of  Christ  in 
one.^  And  now  he  is  anxious  that  the  delegates  from  Asia 
and  Galatia,  from  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  should  accompany 
him  to  Rome,  as  a  guarantee  that  this  great  work  of  the 
collection  had  been  carried  out  with  a  love  that  seeketh  not 
her  own.  But  closely  connected  with  this  desire  to  visit 
Jerusalem  was  the  further  desire  that  he  must  see  Rome.  It 
must  have  cost  the  Apostle  something  to  say  farewell  to  the 
Churches  of  Macedonia  and  to  the  Church  at  Corinth  ;  but 
necessity  was  laid   upon  him. 

During  his  short  and  farewell  stay  of  three  months  in 
Corinth  it  would  seem  that  much  had  been  done  to  restore 
St.  Paul's  authority,  and  the  later  history  of  this  same 
Corinthian  Church  bore  witness  to  its  fidelity  to  Apostolic 
teaching.  These  same  three  months  were  also  doubly  fruitful, 
for  in  them  the  Apostle  wrote  the  treatise  which  was,  of  all 
his  letters,  the  most  marked  by  calm  and  measured  argument, 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  Writing  from  Corinth,  where 
the  Cross  had  been  known  as  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Jews 
and  foolishness  to  the  Greeks,  St.  Paul  declares  that,  never- 
theless, he  is  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  that 
even  in  the  imperial  city  itself  he  was  prepared  to  assert  its 
truth  and  its  meaning.  That  meaning  was  this,  that  the 
Gospel,  simple  as  it  was  to  some,  repellent  as  it  was  at  first 
sight  to  all,  was  the  only  method  by  which  the  problem  could 
be  solved — how  is  righteousness  to  be  obtained  ?      Hitherto 

'  Lightfoot,  Biblical  Essays,  pp.  248-2. 
2  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans,  p.  xxxvi. 


410    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

that  problem  had  baffled  Jew  and  Greek  alike  ;  and  its 
solution  could  only  be  found  in  the  gift  of  God  through  faith, 
i.e.  through  loyal  attachment  to  Christ,  the  gift  of  a  righteous- 
ness which  in  its  nature  excluded  boastfulness,  for  its  attain- 
ment was  open  to  all  alike,  to  the  Gentile  no  less  than  to 
the  Jew.  For  by  certain  great  redemptive  acts,  by  His 
Cross  and  Passion,  by  His  glorious  resurrection,  Christ  had 
died  for  our  sins,  and  had  been  raised  again  for  our  justifica- 
tion.^ But  these  acts  constituted  for  St.  Paul  no  mere 
historical  drama  in  the  past  ;  they  were  for  every  Christian  a 
law,  a  law  of  life  out  of  death  ;  and  in  so  far  as  the  Christian 
identified  himself  with  Christ,  and  shared  in  the  death  of 
Christ,  he  would  be  a  sharer  also  in  Christ's  resurrection, 
knowing  this,  that  our  old  self  is  crucified  with  Him,  that  we 
should  no  longer  serve  sin.  Henceforth,  as  one  who  shared 
in  the  resurrection  of  his  Lord,  the  Christian  was  to  present 
his  members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God.  "  Put 
ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ "  ;  "  Thus  do  they  say  of  friends, 
that  such  an  one  has  put  on  such  an  one "  :  so  wrote  St. 
Chrysostom.^  And  thus  this  sympathy,  this  suffering  with 
Christ,  was  really  union  with  Him  ;  and,  united  with  Him  in 
baptism,  the  Christian  was  dead  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God 
in  Christ  Jesus,  i.e.  in  the  risen,  ascended,  and  glorified 
Christ.  In  Him  and  through  His  Spirit  the  Christian 
receives  the  true  life.  His  body,  mortal  as  it  is,  would 
die  because  of  sin  ;  but  a  man's  body  is  not  his  all — his 
highest  faculty  is  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit  is  life  because 
of  righteousness,  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  the  righteousness 
of  Christian  practice  and  endeavour.  But  if  the  Spirit  of 
God  dwell  in  a  man,  it  would  confer  life  even  upon  his 
nortal  body,  which  the  grave  might  seem  to  claim,  even  as 
the  body  of  Christ  Himself  was  raised  from  the  dead  by 
the  same  Spirit  (Rom.  viii.  lo-ii). 

'  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans,  p.  162. 

-'  Cf.  his  comments  on  Eph.  iv.  24,  and  other  instances  in  VVetstein. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY  JOURNEY       411 

How  natural  it  is  that  this  teaching  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Romans  should  find  expression  when  and  where  it 
does  in  the  Apostle's  life.  Day  by  day  in  Corinth  St.  Paul 
was  coming  into  contact  with  men  who  had  yielded  their 
bodies  as  instruments  of  unrighteousness  unto  sin,  with 
men  who  ridiculed  the  idea  of  a  bodily  resurrection  ;  he 
had  come  into  contact  with  different  forms  of  religious 
faith  in  vogue  in  East  and  West,  with  every  kind  of  char- 
latanry and  superstition,  with  every  sort  of  effort,  maimed 
and  faulty  at  the  best,  to  procure  for  men  and  women 
some  kind  of  access  to  the  divine  power  to  which  they 
would  feign  approach  in  supplication  and  worship.  And 
now  the  Apostle  realised  that  he  was  about  to  start  on 
his  journey  to  the  great  capital  of  the  world,  in  which  he 
was  to  proclaim  the  same  message  as  in  Corinth,  the 
message  of  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified.  This  Roman 
letter  was  St.  Paul's  philosophy  of  history,  but  it  was  in 
the  highest  and  strictest  sense  a  religious  philosophy ;  it 
pointed  men  and  women  not  to  abstract  truths  or  theories, 
but  to  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous,  and  declared  that  in 
union  with  Him  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  would 
rest  upon  them.  The  best  and  noblest  minds  in  Roman 
philosophic  circles  could  talk  of  duty,  but  it  was  a  duty 
which  held  up  its  naked  law  in  the  soul,  whilst  for  St.  Paul 
that  law  had  been  embodied  in  a  life,  a  life  once  lived 
and  still  living,  in  a  Person  through  whose  gift  of  right- 
eousness death  no  longer  reigned,  but  life. 

But  before  St.  Paul  was  destined  to  reach  Rome,  the 
goal  of  all  his  efforts,  before  he  could  see  face  to  face  the 
Roman  Christians,  much  would  be  undergone.  Nowhere, 
perhaps,  in  his  history  does  his  trust  in  God  or  his  own 
personal  courage  stand  out  more  clearly  than  in  the 
determination  at  any  cost  to  reach  Rome,  in  spite  of  his 
own  apprehensions,  in  spite  of  the  repeated  warnings  of 
others,       Modern    writers    have    laid    stress    upon    the    re- 


412     TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

markable  coincidences  between  this  apprehension  on  the 
Apostle's  part  as  it  is  expressed  in  the  Acts  and  in  the 
Roman  Epistle  alike.  But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
one  of  the  ablest  portions  of  Paley's  Horcs  PaulincB  is 
concerned  in  tracing  the  remarkable  coincidences  in  this 
respect  between  the  two  writings.  In  Rom.  xv.  30  and 
in  Acts  XX.  22-3  it  is  the  same  journey  to  Jerusalem 
which  is  spoken  of  The  Epistle  was  written  immediately 
before  St.  Paul  set  forward  upon  this  journey  from  Achaia  ; 
the  words  in  the  Acts  were  uttered  by  him  when  he  had 
proceeded  on  that  journey  so  far  as  Miletus.  And  these 
two  passages,  as  Paley  observes,  without  any  resemblance 
of  being  borrowed  from  one  another,  represent  the  state 
of  St.  Paul's  mind  with  respect  to  the  events  of  the  journey 
in  terms  of  substantial  agreement.  The  only  difference 
is  that  in  the  history  his  thoughts  are  more  inclined  to 
despondency  than  in  the  Epistle.  In  the  Epistle  he  retains 
his  hope  that  "  he  should  come  unto  them  with  joy  by  the 
will  of  God  "  ;  in  the  history  his  mind  yields  to  the  re- 
flection that  the  Holy  Ghost  witnesseth  in  every  city  that 
bonds  and  afflictions  awaited  him.  But  Paley  proceeds 
to  point  out  how  natural  this  is.  That  the  Apostle's  fears 
should  be  greater  in  this  later  stage  of  his  journey  than 
when  he  wrote  his  Epistle,  that  is,  when  he  first  set  out 
upon  it,  is  no  other  alteration  than  might  well  be  expected. 
Those  prophetic  intimations  to  which  he  refers  when  he 
says,  "  The  Holy  Ghost  witnesseth  in  every  city,"  had 
probably  been  received  by  him  in  the  course  of  his  journey, 
and  were  probably  similar  to  what  we  know  he  received 
in  the  remaining  part  of  it  at  Tyre  (xxi.  4),  and  afterwards 
from  Agabus  at  Caisarea  (xxi.  11).^ 

Moreover,   it    is    easy    to    see    that    the    Apostle's    fears 
would   have   been    already    intensified    by   the   discovery  of 
the  plot  of  the  Jews  at  Corinth  to  murder  him,  probably 
'  Horcc  Paulince,  ii.  5. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       413 

at  sea,  after  he  had  embarked  on  a  pilgrim  ship  at 
Cenchreae.  This  obliged  him  to  change  his  plans,  and  it 
was  now  arranged  that  he  should  meet  the  delegates  at 
Troas.  Meanwhile,  St.  Paul  returns  to  Macedonia,  and 
celebrates  the  Passover  in  the  Church  to  which  he  was 
always  so  closely  attached,  the  Church  at  Philippi.  Here, 
too,  St.  Luke  is  closely  associated  with  the  Apostle's 
journey,  for  the  "  We  "-sections  recommence  at  xx.  6  with 
the  words,  "  And  we  sailed  away  from  Philippi  .  .  .  and 
came  unto  them  to  Troas  "  ;  and  it  is  a  fair  inference  that 
the  future  Evangelist  was  one  of  the  delegates  chosen  to 
proceed  to  Jerusalem,  although  with  his  characteristic  modesty 
he  does  not  tell  us  this  in  so  many  words. 

At  Troas,  let  us  remember,  St.  Luke  had  entered,  as 
it  were,  into  the  drama  of  the  Acts,  and  now  that  he  found 
himself  again  at  Troas,  and  again  in  the  company  of  the 
great  Apostle,  it  was  only  natural  that  he  should  recount 
in  detail  the  incidents  of  the  story,  and  more  especially  so 
when  we  take  into  account  their  remarkable  nature.  In 
the  first  place  we  come  across  the  significant  phrase  which 
occurs  in  these  verses  only  in  Acts,  "  The  first  day  of  the 
week "  (xx.  7),  coupled  with  the  fact  that  this  same  day 
is  evidently  regarded  as  the  day  of  Christian  assembly  and 
for  the  breaking  of  the  bread.  On  these  points  we  have 
already  spoken  in  a  previous  lecture.  From  these  few 
words  we  can  at  least  see  how  the  thoughts  of  Christians 
at  this  early  date  were  wont  to  centre  around  the  Lord's 
death,  which  they  would  show  forth  till  He  came,  and  upon 
the  Lord's  resurrection,  and  how  this  assembling  of  them- 
selves together  on  this  first  day  of  the  week  commemorated 
the  two  great  facts  which  proclaimed  and  certified  a  world's 
redemption. 

But  one  other  incident  at  Troas  must  have  been  of 
peculiar  significance  for  St.  Luke,  the  raising  of  Eutychus 
from   the  dead.     No    one   can   reasonably  doubt    that    the 


414     TESTIMONY   OF   ST,   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

minute  details  of  the  narrative  at  least  suggest  that  they 
come  to  us  from  an  eyewitness.  We  have  already  spoken 
of  the  miraculous  power  which  undoubtedly  St.  Paul  claimed, 
and  which  the  early  Church  attributed  to  him  ;  and  here  the 
most  striking  manifestation  of  that  power  is  recorded  by 
his  intimate  friend.  The  positive  assertion  of  St.  Luke,  who 
had  the  best  means  of  knowing,  "  He  was  taken  up  dead," 
differs  not  only  from  the  manner  in  which  at  Lystra 
Paul's  enemies  supposed  that  he  was  dead  (Acts  xiv.  19), 
but  also  from  the  manner  in  which  St.  Mark  tells  us  of  the 
lunatic  boy  that  "  he  became  as  one  dead  "  (ix.  26). 

Dr.  Clemen  and  others  have,  of  course,  done  their  best  to 
show  that  the  mere  fact  that  the  young  man  had  swooned 
away  has  been  magnified  into  the  cause  for  the  assertion  of 
a  striking  miracle.^  But  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that 
St.  Luke  was  a  physician,  and  that  it  is  by  no  means  fanciful 
to  trace  a  physician's  hand  in  the  details  and  wording  of  the 
narrative,  it  may  be  remarked  that  there  is  little  point  in 
St.  Luke's  addition,  "  They  brought  the  lad  alive"  (v.  12), 
unless  it  had  been  firmly  believed  that  he  had  actually 
passed  from  death  unto  life.  It  was  fitting  that  such  a 
restoration  from  the  power  of  death  should  take  place 
amidst  a  scene  which  must  have  spoken  so  vividly  of  Him 
who  had  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light. 

One  other  incident  finds  a  fitting  place  in  the  narrative 
before  St.  Paul  leaves  Asia  on  his  last  journey  to  Jerusalem. 
In  his  anxiety  to  reach  the  Holy  City  for  the  day  of 
Pentecost  the  Apostle  chooses  a  vessel  which  would  sail  past 
Ephesus  without  stopping  :  but  he  determines,  nevertheless, 
to  deliver  a  farewell  charge  to  the  elders,  the  representatives 
of  the  Ephesian  Church,  at  Miletus  some  thirty  miles  farther 
on  his  route. 

1  Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  293.  On  the  force  of  the  language  see  Ramsay, 
St.  Paul,  p.  290;  as  against  Professor  Bacon's  attempt  to  weaken 
it,  Story  0/  St.  Paul,  p.  157. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       415 

Most  valuable  contributions  have  been  recently  made  to 
a  fuller  understanding  of  this  address/  which  is  so  character- 
istic of  St.  Paul  in  its  simplicity,  its  courageous  appeal,  its 
pathos,  its  personal  emotion.  And  not  the  least  important 
merit  of  these  contributions  has  been  to  prove  how  often  the 
Apostle's  language  in  his  Epistles,  and  more  especially  in 
his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  is  in  harmony  with  the 
language  of  this  address.  A  few  instances  may  be  given 
here. 

The  Apostle  speaks  to  the  elders  of  the  whole  counsel  of 
God,  and  we  remember  that  this  thought  of  the  counsel 
of  God's  will  is  a  favourite  one  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Ephesians  ;  there  we  read  of  the  counsel  of  Him  who 
worketh  all  things  according  to  His  will  (i.  11),  and  that 
will  is  emphasised  more  richly  than  in  any  other  letter  as 
a  purpose  not  only  for  Jews,  but  for  the  world  ;  it  was  an 
unchanging  purpose  which  had  run  through  the  ages, 
and  in  its  working  St.  Paul  saw,  and  would  teach  others 
to  see,  hope  for  Jew  and  Gentile  alike,  hope  for  the  whole 
wide  world  in  the  mystery,  the  secret  of  Christ  which  had 
not  been  made  known  in  other  generations,  but  was  now 
revealed,  of  a  Christ  who  was  the  hope  of  glory  in  the 
Gentile  as  in  the  Jew,  and  who  would  gather  up  all  things 
in  one. 

Or,  again,  we  note  in  the  address  how  the  thought  of  the 
pastoral  office,  its  cares  and  its  dangers,  was  specially 
present  to  the  mind  of  St.  Paul  ;  we  note  his  anxiety  to 
enforce  its  many  and  responsible  duties  upon  his  hearers  ; 
and  we  remember  that  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  and 
in  that  Epistle  alone,  St  Paul  speaks  not  only  of  Apostles, 
prophets,  evangelists,  but  of  the  divine  gift  of  pastors,  for 
the  perfecting  of  the  saints. 

Or,  again,  we  may  notice  that  the  thought  of  redemption, 
of  purchase,  and  of  the  price  as  being  that  of  the  blood  of 

1  Chase,  Credibility  of  Acts,  p.  247  £f. ;  Rackham,  Acts,  p.  384. 


4i6    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

the  Son  of  God,  is  prominent  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians 
and  Colossians,  as  also  in  the  great  Epistle  written  within 
a  short  time  of  the  farewell  visit  to  Ephesus  (cf.  Eph.  i. 
7,  14,  ii.  13  ;  Col.  i.  20  ;  Rom.  iii.  25,  v.  9),  and  we  recall 
the  words  at  Miletus  in  which  the  Apostle  speaks  of  the 
Church  of  God  purchased  with  His  own  blood  (R.V.). 

Once  more,  in  the  two  metaphors,  that  of  building  and 
that  of  inheritance,  which  the  Apostle  uses,  as  he  solemnly 
commends  his  sorrowing  friends  to  God,  we  have  language 
prominent  in  the  Ephesian  Epistle,  and  the  great  work  of 
the  Church  is  expressed  in  the  words  "  the  building  up  of  the 
body  of  Christ  "  ;  and  as  the  Apostle  writes  he  thinks  of 
the  eternal  purpose  which  no  lapse  of  time  and  no 
opposition  of  men  could  frustrate,  until  we  all  come  to 
the  unity  of  a  common  faith  and  a  common  knowledge  of 
the  Son  of  God.  And  so,  too,  with  the  thought  of  the 
inheritance  :  it  is  a  portion  or  lot  amongst  all  them  that  are 
sanctified.  So  the  Apostle  describes  it  in  his  words  of  fare- 
well ;  and  thus  we  find  him  in  the  Ephesian  letter  reminding 
his  converts  that  even  here  and  now  we  have  an  inheritance 
and  a  foretaste  of  the  full  riches  of  its  glory,  and  he  bids  the 
Colossians  thank  the  Father  for  the  share  which  they  enjoy 
here  and  now  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light. 

Of  course,  as  in  the  case  of  the  other  addresses  in  Acts, 
this  charge  to  the  Ephesian  elders  has  been  the  subject  of 
unceasing  attack.  Dr.  Clemen  sees  in  it  the  hand  of  his 
versatile  "  author  to  Theophilus,"  on  the  ground  that  the 
writer  of  the  "  We  "-sections  would  never  have  allowed  St. 
Paul  to  speak  in  the  way  which  is  here  attributed  to  him. 
But  Clemen  admits  that  the  separation  from  the  Ephesian 
elders  may  have  been  of  a  very  painful  character,  when  we 
remember  the  Apostle's  forebodings  of  danger  which  he  had 
expressed  so  shortly  before  in  his  letter  to  the  Church  of 
Rome.^ 

'  Faulus,  i.  297. 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       417 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  not  wanting  "  advanced  " 
critics  who  see  in  this  speech  one  of  the  best  attested  dis- 
courses in  the  Acts  ;  and  in  the  fact  that  it  is  probably  the 
one  recorded  address  at  which  St.  Luke  himself  was  present 
we  possess  a  fresh  guarantee  for  its  faithful  transmission.^ 
In  this  record  we  mark  both  the  hand  and  the  judgment  of 
St.  Paul's  familiar  friend.  Nothing  would  have  been  more 
natural  than  that  he  should  have  given  us  some  of  the  words 
of  St.  Paul's  long  discourse  at  Troas,  a  place  endeared  to 
him  by  very  sacred  memories  ;  but  St.  Luke  tells  us  nothing 
of  the  contents  of  this  discourse,  whilst  he  gives  us  a  full 
account  of  an  address  which  was  at  once  the  fittest  vindica- 
tion of  the  Apostle's  character,  the  best  summary  of  his 
preaching  and  work,  and  the  best  guide  for  the  shepherds  of 
the  flock  of  Christ. 

If  we  turn  again  to  the  contents  of  the  address,  that 
which  strikes  us  most  amongst  so  much  that  is  noteworthy 
is  its  testimony  to  the  thoroughness  of  St.  Paul,  a  thorough- 
ness which  characterises  both  his  teaching  and  his  work  : 
"  Ye  yourselves  know  after  what  manner  I  was  with  you  all 
the  timey  Twice  he  uses  a  remarkable  word,  "  I  shrank 
not."  All  that  was  profitable,  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  he 
had  declared  it  unto  them  with  perfect  sincerity,  without 
hesitation.  He  had  only  one  object,  to  finish  his  course  and 
his  ministry ;  ever  before  his  eyes  there  is  the  familiar 
imagery  of  the  race-course,  and  life  itself  was  cheap  if 
peradventure  even  that  must  be  surrendered  to  enable  him 
to  reach  his  goal. 

But  whilst  the  Apostle  had  thus  taught  in  public,  whilst 
he  had  gone  about  (Acts  xx.  25,  R.V.),  it  may  be  as  a 
missionary  to  neighbouring  cities,  preaching  the  kingdom,  no 
teacher  had  been  less  "  careless  of  the  single  life."  There 
had  been  a  time  when  this  same  Paul  had  entered  every 
house  as  the  persecutor  of  the  Church  of  God,  haling  men 

'  Cf.  Expositor's  Greek  Testament,  ii.  429. 

27 


4i8     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

and  women  to  prison  ;  now  in  Ephesus  he  had  also  passed 
from  house  to  house,  a  messenger  of  the  glad  tidings  of 
peace,  of  deliverance  and  freedom  to  them  that  were  bound. 
No  Pharisaic  pride  or  Stoical  disdain  had  marred  his  efforts  as 
in  lowliness  of  mind  he  served  the  Lord,  admonishing  every 
one  night  and  day,  and  that,  too,  with  tears,  those  tears  of 
which  he  was  not  ashamed  to  speak  in  his  labours  for  Ephesus 
and  for  Corinth,  and  of  which  he  makes  mention  even  to  his 
beloved  Philippians,  as  he  poured  forth  his  grief  for  the 
enemies  of  the  Cross  of  Christ. 

And  yet,  whilst  we  mark  this  depth  of  sympathy,  we  are 
conscious  that  there  is  not  wanting  a  firm  note  of  warning  ; 
whilst  the  gentleness  of  Christ  was  not  forgotten,  the  stern 
commands  of  Christ  would  ever  ring  in  the  ears  of  those 
who   were    called    upon   to   be   overseers   in    the    Church  of 
God  :  "  Take  heed  to  yourselves  .  .  .  watch  ye  "  ;  so  the  Lord 
had  warned  the  men  whom  He  had  specially  chosen  to  carry 
on   His   work,  and  so,  in    the  same  words,   St.   Paul  warns 
those  who  had  entered  into  the  same  labours,  who  had  been 
called  to  their  office  not  by  man,  but  by  the   Holy  Ghost. 
And    this    thoroughness    had    marked    both    the    Apostle's 
character  and  his  life.      It  was  not  merely  that  he  had  not 
coveted  the  gold  or  the  silver  or  the  riches  which  were  so 
abundant  in   Ephesus  :   St.  Paul  was  not  the  man  for  mere 
negations,  for  a  mere  abstinence  from  covetous  desires.      As 
he  could  appeal  to  his  audience  for  the  sincerity  and  publicity 
of  his  teaching,  so,  too,  he  could  appeal  to  their  acquaint- 
ance with  the  sincerity  and   publicity  of  his   practice  :  "  Ye 
yourselves  know,"  he  says,  "  that  these   hands,"  the  hands 
marked  by  toil  and  service,  "  ministered  unto  my  necessities, 
and  to  those  that  were  with  me."      An   Apostle  not  only  in 
name,  but  in  deed,  had  been  amongst  them  ;  no  trafficker  in 
Christ  ;  no  XptaTejXTropo's,  to  use  the   striking  word  of  the 
Didache^  xii.  5,  in   its  sharp  condemnation  of  teachers  who 
would  live  as  idlers  whilst  they  claimed  the  title  of  Christians, 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       419 

but  an  Apostle  who,  like  Christ  Himself,  had  been  full  of 
lowliness,  and  who  had  learnt  in  a  life  of  patient  service 
the  meaning  of  the  Beatitude  which  Christ  Himself  had 
taught,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 

Moreover,  it  is  just  because  the  Apostle's  teaching  had 
been  so  thorough  that  he  could  allude  as  he  does  to  the 
Christian  faith  in  his  words  of  farewell,  that  he  could  take 
for  granted  that  the  presbyters  whom  he  was  addressing 
were  at  one  with  him  in  the  acceptance  of  the  great  Christian 
verities,  and  that  he  could  enforce  the  duties  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  and  utter  his  warnings  against  their  neglect  and 
perversion. 

The  elders,  e.g.,  were  "  to  feed  the  Church  of  God  which 
He  had  purchased  with  His  own  blood  "  (Acts  xx.  28,  R.V.), 
or,  as  the  words  may  mean,  "  with  the  blood  of  His  own 
Son."  ' 

Whatever  may  be  the  exact  wording  of  St.  Paul's  solemn 
charge,  no  Christian  at  all  events  can  fail  to  see  the  depth 
and  the  richness  of  the  teaching  which  it  must  presuppose. 

In  the  days  of  old  Israel  had  been  the  sheep  of  God's 
pasture,  purchased  and  redeemed  for  the  tribe  of  his  in- 
heritance ;  and  now  St.  Paul  could  see  in  the  Church  of 
Christ  another  and  a  truer  Israel,  the  little  flock  to  which 
the  Father  had  given  the  kingdom,  and  for  which  the  Good 
Shepherd  had  been  content  to  lay  down  His  life.  Or 
consider  the  stern  words  of  warning  which  the  Apostle 
utters  against  those  who,  after  his  departure,  should  claim  a 
grievous  and  disastrous  rule,  "  speaking  perverse  things  to 
draw  away  the  disciples  after  them  "  (R.V.).  It  was  because 
St.  Paul  had  known  in  his  own  soul,  and  had  enforced  in 
his  own  life  and  practice  all  that  was  meant  by  Christian 
discipleship,  that  he  employs  a  word  which  is  only  used  in 
the  Acts  of  Christian  disciples,  and  utters  his  warning  against 
the  wolves  who  would  make  a  prey  even  of  the  sheep  already 
*  See  Hort,  Ecclesia,  p.  14,  and  W.H.,  "  Notes  on  Select  Readings." 


420    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

to  all  appearances  gathered  safely  within  the  fold.  St.  Paul 
had  shown  himself  a  true  Apostle  ;  he  was  also  a  true 
prophet.  The  groups  of  Epistles  which  we  associate  with 
his  two  captivities  testify  that  his  warning  was  needed,  and 
that  dangers  of  the  kind  which  he  had  foreseen  soon  pressed 
upon  the  Church.  The  words  of  St.  Ignatius,  too,  become 
full  of  significance  in  the  light  of  St.  Paul's  address  to  the 
assembled  elders,  where  he  bids  these  same  Ephesians  shun 
as  wild  beasts  the  men  who  were  wont  of  malicious  guile 
to  hawk  about  the  Name  {Eph.,  vii).  "  I  have  learnt,"  he 
writes,  "  that  certain  persons  passed  through  you  bringing 
evil  doctrine  "  {Eph.^  ix.).  "  Be  not  deceived,  my  brethren  : 
corrupters  of  houses  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  " 
{Eph.,  xvi.). 

Christian  discipleship,  what  did  it  mean  for  St.  Paul  ? 
It  meant,  in  a  word,  that  he  was  "  the  servant  of  the  Lord." 
Three  times  in  this  address  at  Miletus  he  speaks  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  ;  to  His  grace  he  had  owed  his  ministry.  Christ 
had  come  to  minister,  and  St.  Paul,  Apostle  of  the  Churches 
as  he  was,  was  still  amongst  them  as  one  that  serveth.  The 
words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  had  shown  him  the  true  meaning 
of  life,  the  surrender  of  self,;  and  of  faith  towards  the  Lord 
Jesus  he  had  testified  to  Jews  and  Greeks  alike.  And  the 
testimony  of  this  one  speech  to  the  supreme  place  which 
Christ  filled  in  the  Apostle's  heart  and  life,  how  wonderfully 
does  it  receive  confirmation  in  St.  Paul's  own  letters  !  From 
Ephesus  he  writes  the  Epistle  which  we  call  our  i  Corinthians. 
Later  on  he  writes  from  Macedonia  (2  Corinthians),  and, 
again,  before  the  farewell  at  Miletus  had  taken  place,  he 
had  written  from  Corinth  to  Rome.  The  Christology  of 
these  three  Epistles  is  in  striking  harmony  with  that  of  the 
address  to  the  assembled  elders  at  Miletus.  To  the 
Corinthians  the  Apostle  had  spoken,  as  to  the  Ephesians,  of 
the  words  of  Christ  as  a  binding  rule  of  life  and  reference, 
of  his  ways  which  were  in  Christ,  of  the  ministry  which  he 


THE   THIRD   MISSIONARY   JOURNEY       421 

had  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  He  begs  the  Corinthians 
to  receive  the  grace  of  God,  he  appeals  to  their  knowledge 
of  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  so  he  speaks  to  the 
Ephesians  of  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.  To  the 
Romans,  as  to  the  Ephesians,  he  speaks  of  the  costly  purchase 
whereby  God  had  redeemed  mankind,  in  that  He  spared  not 
His  own  Son. 

As  we  mark  these  various  points,  and  add  to  them  the 
coincidences  noted  above  between  the  address  at  Miletus 
and  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  we  find  it  difficult  to 
believe  that  some  unknown  "  author  to  Theophilus,"  or  some 
later  writer  of  the  second  century,  could  thus  have  gathered 
into  one  address  a  whole  series  of  coincidences  with  the 
Apostle's  words  and  thoughts,  especially  if  we  remember 
that  we  are  asked  by  Schmiedel  and  others  to  assign  the 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  to  a  date  between  100-130  A.D. 

If  St.  Paul  speaks  to  us  anywhere  in  the  Acts,  we  feel  that 
he  speaks  to  us  in  the  sorrowful  scene  at  Miletus  and  in 
the  hour  of  parting,  and  yet  a  parting  which  was  not  without 
hope,  for  the  Apostle  shared  with  the  elders  and  the  Church 
of  God  the  same  divine  gift,  "  the  inheritance  amongst  them 
that  are  sanctified."  Once  again,  in  later  years,  St.  Paul, 
in  writing  to  these  same  Churches  of  Ephesus  and  Colosse, 
of  Hierapolis  and  Laodicea,  tells  them  of  the  riches  of  the 
glory  of  this  same  inheritance,  splendid,  undefiled,  in  com- 
parison with  which  the  gold  and  silver,  the  apparel  and  the 
magnificence  of  the  great  capital  of  Asia  were  as  vanity 
and  nothingness  ;  and  as  he  writes  he  keeps  ever  before 
these  same  Churches  the  thought  with  which  he  had 
strengthened  their  elders  as  they  received  his  parting  words, 
the  thought  of  the  one  Lord,  the  one  faith,  the  one  hope 
of  their  calling. 


LECTURE   XX 

JERUSALEM :   ROME 

ST.  PAUL'S  journey  from  Miletus  to  Jerusalem  furnishes 
us  with  fresh  proof  of  his  dauntless  courage  and  of 
his  entire  submission,  in  the  face  of  danger,  to  the  will 
of  God.  At  Tyre  and  at  Caesarea  he  was  met  by  the 
warnings  and  entreaties  of  his  disciples,  who  sought  to 
prevent  him  from  hazarding  his  liberty  and  his  life  in  the 
Jewish  capital.  Even  St.  Luke  and  St.  Paul's  comrades 
(Acts  xxi.  12)  joined  in  the  same  effort  to  turn  their  beloved 
friend  and  master  from  his  purpose.  But  in  bonds,  in 
imprisonment,  in  the  certainty  of  delivery  into  the  hands 
of  his  enemies,  in  the  prospect  of  death  itself,  the  Apostle 
could  only  read  the  good  and  acceptable  and  perfect  will  of 
God.  And  yet  in  the  whole  scene  which  St.  Luke  so 
vividly  depicts  for  us  we  note  the  intense  humanity  of  the 
Apostle.  His  heart  was  almost  broken,  as  he  himself 
expresses  it,  in  his  rejection  of  the  pleadings  of  his  friends. 
But  we  cannot  doubt  that  as  at  a  later  period,  when  he 
reached  Rome,  so  now,  when  the  last  days  of  his  journey  to 
Jerusalem  were  being  accomplished,  human  friendships 
cheered  and  strengthened  him.  Thus  he  starts  from  Csesarea 
in  company  with  disciples.  On  the  way  he  apparently 
lodges  with  a  disciple,  an  early  disciple,  one  Mnason  of 
Cyprus.  The  notice  is  significant.  Mnason  may  well  have 
been   an  old  friend  of  St.   Paul  ;  quite  possibly  he  was  one 

of  the    men    of  Cyprus    driven   from   Jerusalem    after    the 

422 


JERUSALEM:    ROME  423 

murder  of  St.  Stephen,  whom  the  Apostle  had  met  in  earlier 
days  at  Antioch,  when  he  and  another  native  of  Cyprus, 
Barnabas,  had  been  gathered  together  with  the  Church. 

Once  more,  at  the  end  of  his  journey,  further  tokens  of 
the  presence  of  friends  awaited  St.  Paul.  He  enters  Jerusa- 
lem to  receive  a  glad  welcome  from  those  who  are  described 
by  the  name  already  endeared  to  Christians  as  "  the 
brethren." 

In  writing  to  the  Church  at  Corinth  St.  Paul  had  bidden 
them  to  quit  them  like  men,  to  be  strong,  and  to  let  all  their 
things  be  done  in  charity  (i  Cor.  xvi.  13-14).  His  own 
behaviour  at  this  great  crisis  in  Jerusalem  is  the  best  com- 
mentary on  his  words  to  the  Corinthians.  His  presence  in 
the  capital  at  all  was  a  proof  of  his  strength  in  the  Lord  ; 
and  the  purpose  for  which  he  had  come  was  a  proof  of  his 
charity,   of  his  love   for   the  brethren. 

And  now  another  appeal  was  to  be  made  to  the  charity 
which  sought  not  its  own.  St.  James  and  the  elders  suggest 
that  the  Apostle  should  disarm  the  false  and  bitter  prejudice 
which  was  rife  against  him  by  what  was  virtually  an  act  of 
charity.  Four  poor  men,  evidently  members  of  the  Jewish 
Christian  Church,  were  not  able,  it  would  seem,  owing  to  their 
poverty,  to  fulfil  their  Nazirite  vow.  In  such  circumstances 
the  more  wealthy  Jews  were  often  ready  to  help  their  poorer 
countrymen,  and  St.  Paul  was  prepared  to  follow  this  precedent. 
He  would  become  as  a  Jew  to  the  Jews  ;  he  would  conform 
to  the  necessities  of  the  law  ;  he  would  place  himself,  as  it 
were,  on  a  level  with  these  poor  Jewish  Christians,  and  he 
would  publicly  join  with  them  in  the  Temple  in  the  ritual  and 
sacrifices  required  for  the  fulfilment  of  their  vow.  It  was  in 
the  pursuance  of  this  act  of  charity,  and  apparently  at  the 
moment  when  it  had  all  but  reached  its  completion,  that 
St.  Paul  was  seen  in  the  Temple  by  some  of  those  Jews  from 
Asia  who  were  probably  enraged  enough  that  the  Apostle 
had  hitherto   escaped   them.      Now  their  opportunity  again 


424    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

had  come.      They  were  ready  to  sacrifice  both   St.  Paul   and 
their  fellow  countryman  Trophimus  to  the  rage  of  a  Jewish 
mob,  a  mob  more  numerous  and  frenzied    by  the    concourse 
of  visitors  to  the  feast.      No  charge  was,  humanly  speaking, 
more  likely  to  succeed  than  that  made  against  St.  Paul   and 
his  friends  by  these  Asiatic   Jews,  relentless   in   their  hatred 
and  without  scruple  in   their  designs.      The    accusation  was 
that  St.  Paul  had  brought  Trophimus  into  the  inner  court  of 
the    Temple,  and   had    thus   defiled   it,  since  Jews  alone  had 
the  right  of  entry  there.      The  charge  was  untrue,  as  St.  Luke 
tells    us   (Acts  xxi.  29),  but  it   served   its  purpose,  and  mob 
violence   sought  to   enforce    at  once   the    penalty  of  death, 
which  the  law  ordained    for  the   alleged    profanation.      The 
writer  of  the  article  "  Paul  "    in   the  Encycl.   Bibl.   roundly 
declares  that  all  this  narrative  in  Acts  is  inexplicable  in  face 
of  St.  Paul's  statements  in  the   Epistles.      But  not  only  is  it 
quite  consistent,  as   we   have   noted,   with   the   principle  to 
which    the    Apostle    had    given    utterance,    that   he    would 
become  as  a  Jew  to  the  Jews,^  an  utterance  which  may  date 
long   after  he   had    written   the    Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  to 
which    the    above    writer   specially    refers  ;    but    the    whole 
narrative    seems    to   carry  upon   the   face  of  it   remarkable 
evidence  of  its   truth.      In  the  first  place  it  is  scarcely  likely 
that   a   forger   would   have   invented    an    incident    so    com- 
plicated, and  referring  to  details  of  which  even  now  we  know 
but   little,   as,   e.g.,  the   details   connected  with  the   Nazirite 
vow  and  the  conditions  of  Paul's   association    with  the  men 
who  were  bound  by  it.      It   would   have    been   easy  to   have 
selected  some  other  and  less  involved  instance  of  St.  Paul's 
willingness  to  keep  the  law. 

In  the  next  place,  the  picture  of  the  rage  and  fanaticism 
of   the  Jews,  and   the   minute  knowledge  which   the    whole 

'  Weinel,  Patilus,  p.  184,  strongly  disputes  the  passage  before  us, 
and  its  application  to  the  Apostle's  principle  ;  but  Wrede's  language  in 
this  connection  seems  much  more  guarded  {JPaulus,  p.  45  [1905J). 


JERUSALEM  :   ROME  425 

scene  shows  of  the  Temple  and  Jerusalem,  seem  to  warrant 
us  in  believing  that  we  have  a  description  from  an  eye- 
witness who  had  been  with  St.  Paul  in  the  holy  city. 
Take,  e.g.,  the  little  touches  in  the  narrative  which  evidently 
refer  to  the  Tower  of  Antonia,  in  which  the  Roman  soldiers 
were  lodged,  and  to  which  there  was  a  flight  of  steps  from 
the  Temple.  Thus  we  read  "  tidings  came  up,"  i.e.,  to  the 
chief  captain  in  the  tower ;  so,  too,  the  captain  takes 
soldiers  and  "  runs  down,"  i.e.,  from  the  tower.  The 
reference  to  the  pollution  of  the  Temple  by  the  introduction 
of  a  Greek  into  the  Holy  Place  is  quite  in  accordance  with 
our  knowledg-e  derived  from  a  source  outside  the  New 
Testament  which  is  often  cited.^  And  we  may  add,  in 
passing,  that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  chapter,  in  St.  Paul's 
appeal  to  his  citizenship,  and  in  the  permission  which  the 
chief  captain  gave  him  to  address  the  crowd,  Dr.  Clemen 
sees  nothing  unhistorical. 

In  this  address  we  have  the  earliest  of  that  series  of 
"  apologies,"  or  defences  of  the  Gospel,  which  are  so  prominent 
in  this  latter  part  of  Acts.  The  scene  upon  which  St.  Paul 
gazed  as  he  stood  on  the  staircase  of  the  castle  was  a 
remarkable  one,  and  we  can  scarcely  doubt  that  his  thoughts 
travelled  back  to  his  last  public  appearance  in  Jerusalem, 
when,  in  company  with  another  frenzied  crowd,  he  had  kept 
the  garments  of  those  who  stoned  Stephen.  It  is  indeed 
striking  to  note  that  we  may  have  in  the  address  remini- 
scences of  St.  Stephen's  own  words. 

Already  the  fearful  cry  had  been  raised,  "  Away  with 
him  !  "  and  St.  Paul  well  knew  the  import  of  such  a  demand. 
But  for  the  moment  the  angry  cries  were  hushed  in  silence, 
and  St.  Paul  commenced  his  testimony  on  behalf  of  the 
same  faith   for   which   St.   Stephen   had  died.      The  speech 

1  Cf.  Josephus,  B.J.,  vi.  2,  4  ;  and  on  the  famous  inscription  discovered 
by  Clermont-Ganneau,  see  Schurer,  Jewish  People,  Div.  ii.,  vol.  i, 
p.  266,  E.T, 


426    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

was  one  in  which  every  word  must  have  told,  and  it  met, 
at  least  by  implication,  the  various  charges  which  had  been 
brought  against  the  Apostle,  e.g.  that  he  had  despised  the 
law  and  profaned  the  Temple.  But  how  was  it  likely, 
St.  Paul  would  imply,  that  a  blasphemer  or  a  profane  person 
would  have  gained  the  attention  or  the  sympathy  of 
Ananias,  "  a  devout  man,  according  to  the  law,  well  reported 
of  among  all  the  Jews  "  ?  how,  was  it  likely  that  one  who 
had  profaned  the  Temple  should  describe  himself  as  praying 
in  its  courts  ?  But  the  Apostle,  in  spite  of  all  that  he  had 
uttered  by  way  of  conciliation,  could  scarcely  fail  to  have 
perceived  that  there  was  only  one  issue  to  his  speech  ;  it 
was  the  issue  in  a  more  aggravated  form  which  had  followed 
upon  the  message  of  salvation  to  another  audience,  composed, 
like  that  before  him,  of  Jews,  the  message  to  the  Pisidian 
Antioch,  in  which  the  words,  "  I  have  set  thee  for  a  light 
of  the  Gentiles,"  had  stirred  up  bitter  and  persistent 
persecution  against  the  speaker.  And  Jewish  fanaticism 
and  narrowness  were  the  same,  whether  in  Antioch  or  in 
Jerusalem  ;  and  as  the  Apostle  told  of  the  commission 
delivered  to  him  in  the  words,  "  Depart,  I  will  send  thee 
far  hence  unto  Gentiles,"  words  which  intimated  that  as  at 
Antioch,  so  in  Jerusalem,  the  Jews  would  not  have  ears  to 
hear,  the  fateful  cry  again  arose,  "  Away  with  such  a  fellow 
from   the   earth  !  " 

Once  more  the  chief  captain  saved  his  prisoner ;  but 
in  his  own  anxiety  to  know  the  meaning  of  the  charge 
made  against  him,  he  commanded  that  Paul  should 
be  put  to  the  torture.  We  may  note,  in  passing,  that 
Dr.  Clemen  frankly  allows  that  the  Apostle  may  have 
claimed  his  rights  as  a  Roman  citizen  against  this  further 
harshness  and  indignity.  But  in  the  subsequent  account 
of  St.  Paul's  examination  of  a  judicial  character  before  the 
Sanhedrin,  to  which  the  chiliarch  evidently  wished  that  his 
prisoner  should  submit,  Dr.   Clemen  sees  nothing  historical. 


JERUSALEM:    ROME  427 

He  even  thinks — and  this  shows  how  far  this  so-called 
scientific  criticism  would  carry  us — that  it  is  possible  that 
in  the  incident  of  the  High  Priest  commanding  Paul  to  be 
struck  on  the  mouth,  the  influence  of  our  Lord's  Passion 
story  may  be  seen.  In  St.  John  xviii.  22  we  read,  "  One  of 
the  ofiicers  standing  by  struck  Jesus  with  his  hand,  saying, 
'  Answerest  thou  the  High  Priest  so  ?  '  "  and  in  Acts  we  read 
(xxiii.  2,  4)  that  in  answer  to  Paul's  remonstrances  against 
the  blow  which  the  High  Priest  had  ordered  to  be  struck, 
they  that  stood  by  said,  "  Revilest  thou  God's  High  Priest  ?  "  ^ 

St.  Paul's  testimony  before  the  Sanhedrin  is  very  briefly 
described,  but  it  would  seem  from  Acts  xxiii.  9  that  he 
had  told  before  them,  as  before  the  people,  the  story  of  his 
conversion  and  the  appearance  to  him  of  the  risen  Christ. 

St.  Paul's  action  in  dividing  the  Council,  when  he  saw 
that  some  of  the  members  were  Pharisees  and  some  were 
Sadducees,  has  been  severely  criticised,  and  it  is,  as  we 
might  expect,  regarded  as  unhistorical  by  Dr.  Clemen.  But 
we  must  remember  that  no  less  an  historian  than  Mommsen 
has  pointed  out  that  it  redounds  to  the  credit  of  St.  Luke  as 
a  truthful  historian  that  he  should  thus  have  recounted 
incidents  which  did  not  always  tell  to  the  credit  of  St.  Paul.^ 
So  far  as  the  ethics  of  the  incident  are  concerned,  it  is  quite 
certain  that  the  Apostle  might  fairly  claim  to  be  at  one 
with  the  Pharisees  in  the  same  great  hope,  the  Messianic 
hope,  and  in  the  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  But 
passions  as  violent  as  those  of  the  street  mob  had  been  stirred 

'  Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  308-11.  Dr.  Moffatt,  Historical  N.T., 
p.  675,  2nd.  edit.,  agrees  with  Clemen  in  regarding  Acts  xxii.  30  to 
xxiii.  10  as  an  unhistorical  insertion,  and  he  also  agrees  with  Clemen 
that  the  word  dKpi(3ea-Tepov  of  xxiii.  15,  suggested  to  the  editor  that  a 
previous  and  ineffective  examination  must  have  taken  place.  But  what 
a  wonderful  person  this  editor  must  have  been  to  concoct  such  an 
episode  as  that  in  xxiii.  i-io,  and  to  support  it  by  another  unhistorical 
episode  as  Clemen  considers  John  xviii.  22  to  have  been  ! 

2  Zeitschrift  fUr  die  neutest.  Wissenschaft,  Heft  ii.,  1901.  On  the 
incident,  see  also  Rackham,  Acts,."^.  431,  and  Vernon  Bartlet, 
AfostoUc  Age,  p.  163. 


428     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

in  the  midst  of  the  grave  assembly  of  the  Sanhedrin,  and 
once  again  Paul  is  saved  from  being  torn  in  pieces  by  the 
efforts  of  the  Roman  soldiery. 

But  whatever  difficulties  this  episode  of  St.  Paul's  arraign- 
ment before  the  Sanhedrin  may  present,  it  is  at  least  in- 
telligible that  in  these  perils  in  the  city  and  from  his  own 
countrymen  the  Apostle  should  be  cheered  by  a  vision  of 
the  Lord  whose  He  was  and  whom  He  served  :  "  Be  of 
good  cheer,  for  as  thou  hast  testified  concerning  Me  at 
Jerusalem,  so  must  thou  bear  witness  also  at  Rome."  It 
is  one  of  many  incidents  which  tell  us  how  at  each  great 
crisis  of  his  life  St.  Paul's  brave  testimony  to  his  Lord  is 
rewarded  by  a  vision  bringing  fresh  courage  and  strength. 
The  whole  narrative  shows  that  St.  Paul  had  delivered  his 
message  fearlessly  in  Jerusalem,  although  it  is  evident  that 
his  words  had  no  effect  on  the  fanatical  Jews,  and  that  his 
presence  only  goaded  them  on  to  greater  madness  is  seen 
by  the  conspiracy  of  the  forty  men  who  bound  themselves 
by  an  oath  to  kill  him.  That  such  conspiracies  played  a 
part  in  Jewish  life  we  know  well  from  sources  outside  the 
New  Testament,  and  that  such  deeds  of  secret  violence 
should  be  rife  at  this  particular  period  in  the  capital  is 
exactly  what  we  might  expect  from  the  picture  drawn  for 
us  by  the  Jewish  historian  Josephus. 

The  minute  details  introduced  into  the  narrative  by 
St.  Luke  show  us  that  his  description  is  based  upon 
very  accurate  information.  Moreover,  the  action  of  the 
Roman  officer  Lysias  is  very  natural  in  face  of  the  fact 
that  he  found  himself  responsible  for  a  troublesome  prisoner 
who  claimed  the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship.  His  care, 
for  instance,  that  his  prisoner  should  be  conducted  in  safety 
to  Ca;sarea  is  plainly  intimated,  and  the  number  of  the  escort, 
which  seems  almost  too  numerous  to  protect  a  single  prisoner, 
is  fully  accounted  for  by  the  fear  of  a  surprise  from  the 
conspirators  or  other  fanatical  Jews.     But  the  same  vision 


JERUSALEM:   ROME  429 

which  had  intimated  to  St.  Paul  that  his  witness  in  Jerusalem 
was  over  had  also  assured  him  that  his  heart's  desire  was 
to  be  fulfilled  in  bearing  witness  also  in  Rome. 

But  the  imperial  city  was  not  yet  reached,  and  the  Apostle 
would  first  be  called  upon  to  take  his  stand  before  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  empire  in  his  fatherland,  and  before  those 
who  might  fitly  be  described  as  rulers  and  kings.  The  first 
of  these  representatives  was  the  procurator  Felix.  And 
here  we  may  remark,  in  passing,  that  Mommsen  rightly  blames 
those  critics  who  suppose  that  the  trial  before  Felix  and 
again  before  Festus  is  simply  a  repetition  by  the  writer  of 
the  same  event,  and  that  one  trial  or  the  other  was  a  mere 
invention.  Nothing  is  more  credible,  according  to  Mommsen, 
than  that  the  accusation  made  before  one  governor  should  be 
repeated  under  another,  especially  as  the  first  trial  had  led  to 
no  definite  result,  and  obviously  the  two  trials  would  present 
analogous  features.^ 

Of  Felix  the  Roman  historian  has  written  that  he 
wielded  the  power  of  a  king  with  the  mind  of  a  slave 
(Tacitus,  Hist.,  v.  9).  It  is,  of  course,  easy  to  affirm  that  the 
description  of  St.  Paul's  interview  with  Felix  is  so  coloured 
by  its  apologetic  tendency  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether 
it  is  true  or  not.  But  one  thing  is  certain,  that  the  character 
of  Felix  stands  out  in  the  whole  scene  in  a  way  which 
precisely  corresponds  to  the  words  of  Tacitus.  The  speech 
of  the  hired  orator  Tertullus  shows  us  with  what  servile 
flattery  the  favour  of  such  a  man  would  be  sought,  and 
how  even  he  could  be  addressed  in  terms  which  might 
have  been  used  in  speaking  of  the  emperor  himself  But 
with  all  his  power  and  arrogance  there  was  in  Felix  the 
mind  of  the  slave  ;  freedman  though  he  was,  he  had  never 
known  the  truth  which  alone  could  make  him  free. 

It  is  no  apologetic   colouring,  but  the  plain  unvarnished 
statement  of  the  effect  of  all    fearless   Christian   preaching, 
•  Zeitschriftfur  die  tieutest.  Wissenschaft,  Heft  ii.  1901. 


430    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

like  that  of  Paul,  when  we  read  that,  as  the  Apostle 
reasoned  of  righteousness  and  self-control  and  the  judg- 
ment to  come,  that  judgment  before  which  even  judges 
must  take  their  stand,  Felix  was  terrified.^  Nothing  could 
mark  the  base  nature  of  this  man  more  strikingly  than  the 
way  in  which  St.  Luke  represents  him  as  drowning  the 
voice  of  conscience  and  yet  clinging  with  the  covetousness 
which  God  abhorreth  to  the  hope  of  a  bribe,  finding  in  this 
expectation  a  reason  for  seeing  his  prisoner  the  oftener,  and 
yet  leaving  him  in  bonds  at  the  desire  of  his  guilty  wife, 
or,  as  a  kind  of  set-off  against  the  charges  brought  against 
him,  to  gain  favour  with  the  Jews.  A  man  of  different 
character  succeeded  Felix  ;  and  in  Festus  we  have  the  picture 
of  a  Roman  at  least  concerned  to  act  fairly  by  his  prisoner 
and  to  appeal  to  the  purest  traditions  of  Roman  justice 
(Acts  XXV.  1 6).  Such  traditions  had  been  cruelly  falsified 
by  his  predecessors,  and  even  in  Festus  himself  it  must  be 
admitted  that  we  have  no  ideal  judge.  His  proposal  that 
Paul  should  go  up  from  Csesarea  to  Jerusalem  for  trial 
before  him,  in  conjunction  with  the  Sanhedrin,  enabled  the 
Apostle  to  realise  more  fully  than  ever  that  no  Roman 
procurator,  however  specious  his  intentions,  could  be  relied 
on  to  prevent  the  Jews  from  executing,  sooner  or  later,  their 
plans  of  revenge.  And  so  the  words  were  uttered  which 
saved  Paul  from  the  surrounding  perils  of  his  false  brethren, 
"  I  appeal  unto  Caesar." 

This  picture  of  Festus  which  St.  Luke  gives  us,  like  that 
of  Felix,  is  true  to  all  that  is  known  of  the  man.  We  mark 
not  only  his  desire  to  do  justly,  but  also  the  proud  con- 
tempt of  the  Romans  for  the  provincials  and  their  doings. 

'  Dr.  Clemen  objects  to  the  incidental  reference  to  the  collection  for 
the  poor  saints  (Acts  xxiv.  17)  as  being  improbable.  But  if  a  man  with 
St.  Paul's  Epistles  before  him  had  been  concocting  this  address,  he 
would  surely  have  made  a  much  more  pointed  and  fuller  use  of  the 
collection  (Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  314;  and  see,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
remarks  of  Paley,  Horce  Pauljnce,  ii.  i). 


JERUSALEM:   ROME  431 

He  sees  that  nothing  criminal  or  which  fell  within  his 
jurisdiction  could  be  fairly  alleged  against  the  strange 
prisoner  before  him,  and,  in  company  with  Gallio  and 
Claudius  Lysias,  he  speaks  almost  contemptuously  of  the 
certain  questions  of  Jewish  law  and  of  religion  of  which 
Paul  stood  accused.  We  mark  the  same  tone  when  the 
Roman  aristocrat  proceeds  to  speak  "  of  one  Jesus  who  was 
dead,  whom  Paul  affirmed  to  be  alive."  But  this  almost 
contemptuous  ignorance  of  the  Roman  made  it  likely 
enough  that  he  should  seek  for  information  about  a  case 
which  had  become  the  matter  of  an  appeal  to  the  emperor. 
Such  a  source  of  information  was  quickly  found  in  King 
Agrippa,  the  last  of  the  Herods.  He  had  come  to  salute 
the  new  governor,  and  Festus  laid  Paul's  case  before  him 
as  before  one  who  was  well  versed  in  Jewish  law  and  religion. 
But  the  Apostle  had  made  his  appeal  to  Caesar,  and  he 
might  therefore  have  declined  to  plead  before  Agrippa.  And 
yet  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  he  would  recall  his  Lord's 
good  confession  before  Pontius  Pilate,  and  that  he  would 
think  himself  happy,  as  he  tells  us,  to  declare  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  before  the  rulers  of  this  world,  before  Festus  and 
Agrippa  alike.  And  as  we  recall  St.  Paul's  words,  whether 
before  the  rulers  of  the  world  or  the  council  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  we  see  how  all  turns  on  the  question  of  the  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead,  and  how  his  witness  is  a  witness  to  the  fact 
that  in  Jesus  the  Christ  this  resurrection  from  the  dead  is 
assured. 

And  in  this  "defence,"  delivered  before  a  Jewish  king, 
we  see  how  the  Gospel  was  shown  to  be  a  message  for 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  one  with  another.  St.  Peter, 
in  his  earliest  addresses  in  Acts,  had  appealed  to  the 
voices-  of  the  prophets,  and  St.  Paul  does  the  same. 
St.  Peter  had  read  in  the  utterances  of  the  prophets  that 
the  Christ  must  suffer  and  rise  again  ;  St.  Paul's  reading 
of   the    prophets   was   in    effect   the   same.      St.    Peter   had 


432     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

spoken  of  faith  in  a  living  Person,  and  St.  Paul  does  the 
same.  Each  was  to  be  a  witness  of  the  things  which  he 
had  heard  and  seen,  the  things  which  had  fulfilled  the 
prophetic  words.  Repentance  and  faith  were  the  burden  of 
the  message  alike  to  the  crowds  in  Jerusalem  and  to  the 
brilliant  assembly  which  sat  in  the  judgment  hall  at  Caesarea, 
with  Festus  and  Agrippa,  in  great  pomp.  Moreover,  it 
was  because  St.  Paul  had  fearlessly  preached  the  universa- 
lity of  the  Gospel  for  Jew  and  Gentile  alike  that  he  had 
incurred,  as  he  says,  the  deadly  hatred  of  his  nation.  And, 
as  he  spoke,  he  could  scarcely  have  forgotten  that  in  the 
earlier  days  of  the  Church's  life  another  Agrippa  had  seized 
St.  Peter,  and  would  have  sent  him  not  only  to  prison, 
but  to  death,  in  order  to  please  the  Jews.  But  the  Christian 
faith  had  grown  since  then,  and  now  another  Herod  Agrippa 
bids  Paul  to  speak  for  himself. 

The  speech  which  followed  this  permission  has  gener- 
ally been  regarded  as  the  most  finished  in  the  Acts, 
and  it  was  quite  in  accordance  with  the  fitness  of  things 
that  it  should  be  so.^  After  all  that  the  Apostle  had 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  his  countrymen,  and  after  his 
message  had  been  delivered  before  the  Sanhedrin  at  the 
risk  of  his  life,  it  must  have  been  a  unique  experience  to 
be  called  upon  to  plead  his  cause  with  the  permission 
and  in  the  presence  of  a  Jewish  king.  And  nowhere 
perhaps  had  St.  Paul's  own  words  received  a  more 
striking  fulfilment  than  before  his  present  audience.  To 
the  Corinthians  St.  Paul  had  spoken  of  the  Cross  as  a 
stumbling  block,  and  Agrippa  could  not  accept  St.  Paul's 
proof  from  the  prophets  that  the  Christ  must  suffer,  whilst 
to  Festus  the  Cross  was  foolishness,  and  the  preacher  of  a 
crucified    and    risen    Christ,    in    whose    light    both    Jew    and 

'  "  Oratio  haec  magnopere  elaborata,  condicioni  rerum  et  moribus 
personarum  accommodatissima,  flumine  et  fervore  eloquentiae 
praestans  "  (Blass,  Acta  A^ostolorum,  p.  263). 


JERUSALEM:   ROME  433 

Gentile  should  see  light,  could  only  be  regarded  as  a  madman. 
And  so,  although  much  had  happened  since  St.  Paul's 
first  missionary  address  in  the  synagogue  of  the  Pisidian 
Antioch,  the  burden  of  his  preaching  was  ever  the  same, 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  and  that  in  that  strange  paradox 
of  victory  through  suffering  all  the  promises  of  God  were 
Amen  in  Him.  And  in  each  case  Jewish  ears  had  refused 
to  hear  the  message  :  at  Antioch  it  had  been  received  with 
open  scorn  ;  before  Agrippa  the  Apostle's  appeal  had  been 
dismissed  with  something  like  a  sneer.  But  whilst  the 
Jews  at  Antioch  had  rejected  and  condemned  St.  Paul, 
Agrippa,  although  he  rejected  him,  could  not  condemn  him, 
and  in  that  verdict  of  acquittal  Festus  joined. 

Again,  we  may  notice  in  this  same  address  how  St.  Paul, 
no  less  than  St.  Peter,  appeals  to  the  evidence  of  well- 
known  historical  facts.  Nowhere  does  St.  Paul  speak 
more  confidently  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  change  which 
Christianity  had  wrought  in  men,  and  nowhere  does  he 
speak  more  confidently  of  the  historical  facts  upon  which 
that  transformation  of  character  depended,  "  This  thing  was 
not  done  in  a  corner."  Men  sometimes  speak  as  if  the 
strength  of  St.  Paul's  case  was  no  longer  ours  to-day. 
We  are  often  told  that  the  argument  from  prophecy  does 
not  hold  the  place  which  it  once  did,  and  that  the  voices 
of  the  prophets  are  hushed  so  far  as  their  evidential  value 
is  concerned. 

And  yet  that  marvellous  picture  of  the  suffering  Servant 
of  the  Lord  stands  out  for  us  to-day  in  colours  which  no 
lapse  of  time  can  dim,  with  its  union  of  ignominious  de- 
gradation and  of  glorious  conquest,  and  we  are  sure  that 
no  human  painter's  hand  and  mind  alone  could  have 
portrayed  such  a  fulfilment  of  the  motto,  Vincit  qui  patitur, 
"  He  conquers  who  suffers."  Never  before  has  the  life 
of  Christ  been  so  scrutinised  in  every  detail,  and  yet  we 
can   welcome   such   scrutiny  and   investigation,  because    we 

28 


434     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

remember  that  we  are  not  dealing  with  some  prehistoric 
or  mythic  period,  but  with  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire, 
its  government,  and  its  procedure,  "  this  thing  was  not 
done  in  a  corner,"  and  because  we  can  test  the  New 
Testament  records  in  the  h'ght  of  all  that  we  have  learnt 
to  know  of  Jewish  expectancy  and  hope.  And  St.  Paul's 
mission,  what  was  it  ?  He  tells  us,  as  he  stands  before 
Agrippa,  that  he  had  been  sent  to  the  Gentiles  to  open 
their  eyes  and  to  turn  them  from  darkness  to  light.  And 
the  inner  witness  corroborates  the  appeal  to  the  external 
facts,  "  One  thing  I  know,  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I 
see."  St.  Peter's  declaration  had  been  in  effect  the  same, 
"  And  we  are  witnesses  of  these  things,"  he  maintains 
before  the  Jewish  council,  and  he  adds,  "  And  so  is  the  Holy 
Ghost  whom  God  hath  given  to  them  that  obey  Him  " 
(Acts  V.   32). 

There  was  thus  a  twofold  witness  :  the  historical  witness 
borne  to  the  facts,  and  the  internal  witness  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  bringing  home  to  men's  hearts  and  minds  the 
meaning  of  those  facts.  And  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  alike 
in  their  testimony  could  fearlessly  appeal  to  that  twofold 
witness.  Already,  when  St.  Peter  spoke,  the  Holy  Ghost 
had  been  at  work,  in  the  favour  which  the  early  believers 
won,  like  Jesus,  from  God  and  man  ;  in  the  peace  and  calm 
with  which  they  worshipped  in  the  Temple  and  from  house 
to  house  ;  in  the  exulting,  bounding  gladness  which  filled 
each  believing  soul  ;  and  the  Christian  life  had  testified 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  was  indeed  righteousness,  peace, 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Already  the  Holy  Ghost  had 
been  at  work,  as  signs  and  wonders  had  been  done 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  as  the  grace  of  for- 
giveness and  the  full  measure  of  conviction  followed  upon 
the  preaching  that  Jesus  was  the  Lord.  And  as  the  Gospel 
had  passed  from  Jerusalem  to  the  great  Gentile  world 
beyond,  and  to  the  great  capital  of  the  empire,  Rome  itself, 


JERUSALEM:   ROME  43S 

the  same  results  had  accompanied  the  twofold  witness,  the 
witness  to  the  facts  of  Christ's  life  and  to  the  teaching 
that  He  was  the  firstborn  from  the  dead,  the  Giver  of 
light  and  life,  and  the  Ruler  of  the  kings  of  the  earth. 

What  was  St.  Paul's  special  relation  to  the  life  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  Rome  ?  We  have  already  touched  upon 
this  subject  indirectly  in  the  account  of  the  Epistles  written, 
as  we  believe,  from  Rome  during  the  Apostle's  first  im- 
prisonment, and  we  have  tried  to  note  something  of  the 
moral  and  spiritual  force  of  a  message  embracing  the  three 
great  relationships  of  heathen  life,  those  of  master  and  slave, 
of  husband  and  wife,  of  parent  and  child.  In  Rome,  no  less 
than  in  Colosse,  there  was  need  to  recall  men  to  their  duties 
in  connection  with  these  three  social  relationships.  For 
already  two  great  tendencies  so  fatal  to  the  highest  Christian 
life  were  developing  :  the  tendency,  on  the  one  hand,  to  dis- 
regard the  moral  law,  and  the  tendency,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  adopt  an  ascetic  mode  of  life.  In  Rome,  as  at  Colosse, 
these  influences  were  at  work,  and  St.  Paul  had  marked  them  ; 
and  whether  there  was  actually  a  special  sect  of  vegetarians 
in  Rome,  as  Von  Dobschiitz  and  others  have  thought,^  or 
whether  the  Apostle  is  speaking  quite  generally,  it  is  evident 
that  in  Rom.  xiv.  he  has  in  mind  some  danger  due  to 
excessive  scrupulosity  and  asceticism. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  view  recently 
advocated  by  Von  Dobschiitz  of  the  probable  formation  of 
the  Church  in  Rome.^  He  supposes  that  in  the  reign  of 
Claudius  the  news  of  Christianity  may  have  been  carried  to 
Rome  through  some  unknown  agencies  direct  from  Palestine, 
and  in  this  connection  we  naturally  think  of  an  Andronicus 
and  Junias.  Here,  in  the  capital  of  the  world,  all  kinds  of 
Christian  circles  were  formed,  which  later  on  were  united 
into  one    Church.      This   theory    is    in   some  respects    very 

1  Die  urchristlichen  Gemeinden,  p.  93  ff. 
^  Das  apostolische  Zeitalter,  p.  16. 


436    TESTIMONY    OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

similar  to  that  advocated  by  Dr.  Sanday  and  Dr.  Headlam  in 
their  Commentary  on  Romans  (pp.  xxvii.,  xxxv).  The 
freedom  of  circulation  and  movement  in  the  Roman  empire 
would  bring  together  many  groups  of  Christians  in  Rome. 
Some  may  have  come  from  Palestine,  some  from  Corinth  or 
Ephesus,  some  from  Tarsus  or  the  Syrian  Antioch  ;  there 
may  have  been  at  first  no  concerted  action  in  the  matter, 
and  for  a  time  the  Church  in  Rome  would  consist  of  a 
number  of  such  little  groups  as  could  be  marked  by  the 
household  of  Prisca  and  Aquila,  or  by  the  household  of 
Narcissus  or  Aristobulus.  But  if  such  a  view  is  at  all 
correct,  we  may  see  at  once  that  St.  Paul  must  have  come 
into  constant  contact  with  the  Church  in  some  pious  house- 
hold or  family,  and  how  often  he  must  have  noted  the 
pure,  simple  life  of  some  brother  or  '  sister  in  the  Lord.' 
Not  that  this  theory  requires  us  to  suppose  that  the 
Church  was  without  organisation  or  that  Church  doctrine 
was  neglected.  There  are  indications  in  the  Roman  Epistle, 
as,  indeed,  there  are  in  the  Apostle's  earliest  Epistle 
(i  Thess.  V.  12)  of  the  presence  of  some  kind  of  regular 
ministry,^  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Apostle 
assumes  everywhere  throughout  the  Christian  community  a 
knowledge  of  a  common  basis  of  teaching  and  of  fundamental 
Christian  doctrine. 

Such  considerations  as  the  above  suggest  further  reference 
to  the  last  chapter  of  Romans,  a  chapter  which  is  so  closely 
related  to  the  circumstances  we  are  considering.  This 
chapter  we  know  has  been  often  refused  to  St.  Paul ;  and  if 
it  is  attributed  to  him,  it  is  a  favourite  theory  that  it  should 
be  regarded  as  a  circular  letter  of  the  Apostle,  addressed  not 
to  Rome,  but  in  the  first  place  to  Ephesus.  But  Dr.  Clemen 
has  recently  come  forward  as  a  staunch  supporter  not  only 
of  the  Pauline  authorship,  but  also  of  Rome  as  the  destination 

'  Sanday  and  Headlam,  u,s.  p.  xxxv.,  and  Speaker's  Commentary, 
iii.  727. 


JERUSALEM  :   ROME  437 

of  this  chapter.^  And  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  quotes 
at  length  Dr.  Sanday's  and  Dr.  Headlam's  Commentary  as  to 
this,  and  to  the  remarkable  character  of  the  names  mentioned 
in  the  chapter  before  us.^  It  is  a  striking  fact,  for  example, 
that  we  find  that  very  few  of  these  names  occur  in  the 
inscriptions  of  Ephesus  or  in  the  province  of  Asia  ;  and  this 
comparison  suggests  at  all  events  that  such  a  combination  of 
names — Greek,  Jewish,  Latin — could  only  be  found  in  a 
mixed  population  like  that  which  formed  the  lower  and 
middle  classes  of  Rome.  It  is  not  pretended  that  this 
evidence  is  conclusive,  but  at  all  events  it  shows  us  that  there 
is  no  a  priori  improbability  in  the  names  being  those  of 
Roman  Christians,  and  that  it  would  be  difficult  anywhere 
else  to  illustrate  such  a  heterogeneous  collection.^  Those 
of  us  who  have  read  Bishop  Lightfoot's  Philippians  are  not 
likely  to  forget  the  interest  awakened  by  the  comparison 
which  he  institutes  between  the  names  mentioned  in 
Rom.  xvi.  and  the  names  found  upon  the  graves  of  the 
imperial  household  in  the  Appian  Way.  And  the  interest 
in  this  comparison  is  increased  when  we  remember  that 
St.  Paul's  converts  in  many  cases  were  taken,  as  he  himself 
tells  us,  Phil.  iv.  22,  from  amongst  the  retainers  of  the  emperor. 
But  since  Bishop  Lightfoot's  time  more  evidence  has  been 
forthcoming,  and  it  is  perhaps  possible  to  go  further,  and  to 
say  that  if  there  was  any  Church  in  which  the  "  not  many 

1  Dr.  Lock,  in  speaking  on  "The  Authenticity  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles" 
{Liverpool  Church  Congress)^  1904,  endorses  the  conjecture  of  Spitta 
and  Dr.  Gifford  that  this  chapter  is  a  short  letter  of  greeting  sent  by 
St.  Paul  to  Rome  after  his  release  from  imprisonment,  and  he  sees  in 
it  a  valuable  corroboration  of  the  fact  of  the  release.  For  Spitta' s  theory 
see  his  Untersuchungen  iiber  den  Brief  des  Paulus  an  die  Romer, 
p.  88,  and  for  Dr.  Gifford,  Romans,  in  the  Speaker' s  Commentary, 
iii.  29. 

^  See  p.  xciv.  On  the  ease  with  which  Aquila  and  Priscilla  would  have 
moved  from  Ephesus  to  Rome,  and  from  place  to  place,  see  Ramsay, 
Expositor,  December,  1903,  p.  401  ff.,  and  Lightfoot,  Biblical  Essays, 
p.  300. 

^  Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  106-7. 


438    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  tO   CHRlSt 

wise  men  after  the  flesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble," 
had  an  exception,  it  was  at  Rome.^  We  have,  for  instance, 
the  fact  that  the  retinue  of  the  emperor  would  probably 
contain  some  members  of  a  certain  degree  of  culture,  and 
such  culture  is  perhaps  witnessed  to  in  the  name  Philologus, 
although  the  name  was  common  enough  amongst  slaves  and 
freedmen.  The  name  of  Herodion,  moreover,  whom  Paul 
mentions  as  his  kinsman,  seems  to  indicate  that  the  bearer 
was  a  freedman  in  the  household  of  some  member  of  the 
Herod  family,  e.g.  Aristobulus,  or  possibly  of  the  notorious 
Narcissus,  whose  freedmen,  even  after  his  death,  would  be 
distinguished  as  Narcissiani.  But  we  may  turn  to  other 
evidence  of  a  more  positive  character.  "  The  very  existence 
of  the  catacombs,"  writes  Professor  Orr,  in  his  valuable  little 
book  on  Neglected  Factors  in  the  Study  of  the  Early 
Progress  of  Christianity  (p.  114),  "taken  in  connection  with 
the  circumstances  of  their  origin,  is  a  proof  that  the  Church 
of  Rome  must  from  the  earliest  period  have  had  among  its 
members  persons  of  wealth  and  distinction.  The  oldest  of 
the  catacombs  go  back  to  the  first  century — one  or  two, 
perhaps,  to  Apostolic  days.  In  nearly  all  cases  they  seem 
to  have  been  begun  as  private  burial-places  in  the  gardens  or 
vineyards  of  persons  of  the  wealthier  class,  while  the  elegance 
and  refinement  of  their  construction  and  the  elaboration  of 
their  decorations  point  to  lavish  outlay  by  their  owners." 
And  on  another  page  (p.  96)  he  expresses  his  conviction 
that  although  it  may  be  going  too  far  to  say,  with  Professor 
Ramsay,  that  Christianity  spread  at  first  among  the  educated 
more  rapidly  than  among  the  uneducated,  yet  this  statement 
is  to  be  preferred  to  the  well-known  statement  of  Gibbon, 
that  the  new  sect  was  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of  the 
dregs  of  the  populace. 

In  this  connection   it  is  a  satisfaction   to  be  able  to  refer 

1  Dr.  Sanday  and   Headlam,  Romans,  pp.  xxxv.,  xciv.     Lightfoot 
himself  says  just  the  opposite  {Phili^pianSy  p.  xx.). 


JERUSALEM:   ROME  439 

again  to  the  writer  who  stands  in  the  front  rank  amongst 
recent  German  historians,  Von  Dobschiitz.^  He  points  out 
that  although  in  the  earliest  times  Christianity,  so  far  as 
the  palace  was  concerned,  penetrated  only  to  the  chambers 
of  the  servants  or  the  barracks  of  the  guard,  or  to  the 
ranks  of  the  Court  pages  (whilst  Judaism  had  its  advocates 
amongst  the  fashionable  ladies  of  society),  yet  it  possessed  some 
members  of  high  social  status  amongst  its  adherents,  and 
that  the  view  put  forward  by  the  old  and  new  opponents 
of  the  Christian  faith,  viz.  that  Christianity  was  simply  a 
religion  of  the  proletariat,  is  entirely  onesided,  as  the  adherents 
of  the  Church  were  taken  for  the  most  part,  not  from  the 
lowest,  but  from  the  middle  ranks  of  Society  (and  with  this 
we  may  compare  Dr.  Clemen's  frank  acknowledgment  of  the 
same  truth).  But  the  same  writer  also  points  out  the 
reasons  why,  in  his  judgment,  Christianity  made  such  social 
progress.  There  was,  no  doubt,  a  great  religious  yearning 
through  the  whole  Roman  Empire  for  something  higher 
than  a  contentment  with  the  things  seen  and  temporal. 
The  Egyptian  Isis  and  the  great  nature  goddess  of  the 
Phrygians  were  as  much  at  home  in  Rome  as  in  the  cities 
and  towns  of  a  Greek  character.  He  further  points  out 
that,  concurrently  with  the  introduction  of  all  kinds  of  new 
religions,  there  were  to  be  found  quacks,  magicians,  and 
priests  of  every  sort,  and  rhetoricians  declaiming  on  all 
kinds  of  religious  questions,  all  eager  and  intent  to  trade 
upon  the  superstitions  of  the  people.^ 

In  all  this  there  was,  no  doubt,  movement  and  life,  but 
still  there  .was  nothing  that  satisfied.  Then,  adds  Von 
Dobschiitz,  came  the  Gospel,  with  its  glad  message  of  the 
grace  of  God   and   the  forgiveness  of  sins,   of  the   blessing 

1  Das  a^ostolische  Zeitalter^  p.  2 1 . 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  14-15.  See  also  Clemen,  Paulus.,  ii.  320-1,  on  the 
whole  social  question,  and  the  undoubted  influence  of  the  Christian 
faith  upon  all  classes. 


440    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

of  divine  sonship,  of  a  new  moral  power,  of  the  resurrection 
and  eternal  life. 

But  in  the  same  paragraph  he  forcibly  reminds  us  that 
whilst  the  religious  element  was  thus  the  primary  one  in  the 
new  movement  which  Christianity  introduced,  yet  we  must 
not  overlook  the  great  and  powerful  influence  of  the  social 
factor,  that  strong  social  feature  of  brotherly  help  on  behalf 
of  the  poor  and  needy  which  from  the  beginning  found  a 
place  in  the  Christian  Church.  It  was  this  social  bond 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  doubtless  realised  by  the  Apostle 
with  renewed  force  as  he  found  himself  in  the  capital  of  an 
empire  where  the  power  and  influence  of  a  common  citizen- 
ship were  borne  in  upon  him  at  every  turn.  And  Christians 
were  members  of  a  nobler  household  than  that  of  Caesar  or 
of  Aristobulus  ;  they  were  fellow  citizens  with  the  saints  and 
of  the  household  of  God.  But  at  the  same  time,  whilst  the 
Acts  tells  us  how  St.  Paul's  preaching  in  Rome  centred 
around  the  teaching  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  of  the  things 
concerning  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  (Acts  xxviii.  30),^  the 
Apostle  never  forgets  to  remind  men  that  they  were  bidden 
not  to  make  these  high  and  lofty  themes  a  pretence  for 
neglecting  their  duties  as  the  citizens  of  a  mighty  empire. 
The  Christian  citizenship  was  in  heaven  (Phil.  iii.  20),  and 
yet  in  this  same  Epistle,  written  from  Rome,  the  Apostle 
had  said,  "  Only  let  your  manner  of  life  be  worthy  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ,"  i.e.  behave  as  citizens  worthy  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ  (Phil.  i.  27). 

Before  the  close  of  the  first  century  another  great 
Christian  teacher,  St.  Clement  of  Rome,  had  written  from 
the  same  metropolis  of  the  empire  to  the  Church  at  Corinth, 
and   it  is    interesting  to  note  how  frequently  he,  too,  uses 

On  St.  Paul's  preaching  in  Rome,  as  described  in  the  Acts,  and  his 
intercourse  with  his  fellow  countrymen,  the  present  writer  may  refer  to 
the  Expositor's  Greek  Test.,  ii.  549 ;  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans, 
p.  xxi.,  and  for  the  conclusion  of  the  Acts  to  Mr.  Rackham,  Journal 
of  Theological  Studies,  i.  76  (1899) ;  Blass,  Acta  Aj^ostolorum,  p.  2^. 


JERUSALEM:   ROME  44i 

language  which  enforces  this  thought  of  citizenship,  and 
how,  like  St.  Paul,  he  ever  keeps  before  his  mind  the  life 
of  a  Christian  citizen  lived  in  the  world,  and  the  life,  the 
higher  life  of  a  Christian,  as  a  citizen  of  a  heavenly  kingdom. 
But  a  further  thought  connects  itself  with  the  teaching  of 
St.  Paul  and  with  the  fact  that  he  lays  such  stress  upon  the 
life  of  the  Christian  home  and  the  Christian  citizenship. 
In  the  Epistles  of  the  first  imprisonment,  family  life,  as 
we  have  seen  for  the  first  time,  is  regulated  in  all  its  rela- 
tionships ;  and  in  the  Epistles  of  the  second  imprisonment 
we  have  the  natural  climax  in  this  connection,  for  family 
life,  citizen  life.  Church  life,  ministerial  life,  are  fitly  described 
as  brought  under  the  reign  of  law.^  But  all  this  is 
thoroughly  characteristic  of  St.  Paul.  As  he  writes  from 
the  loneliness  of  his  Roman  prison  he  is  mindful,  no  less 
than  in  the  days  of  his  active  missionary  labours,  that  behind 
the  life  of  the  citizen  and  of  the  home,  behind  the  public 
life  of  those  who  ministered  about  holy  things,  there  is  the 
inner  life  hidden  with  Christ  in  God  upon  which  all  else 
depends.  As  in  writing  in  his  early  missionary  days  to  the 
Thessalonians  he  had  bidden  them  to  observe  their  social 
duties,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  to  possess  themselves  of 
their  own  vessels  in  sanctification  and  honour,  so  in  writing 
at  the  close  of  his  life  to  Timothy,  the  Apostle  bids  him  to 
be  an  ensample  to  them  that  believe  in  purity  ;  while  at  the 
same  time  he  emphasises  the  importance  of  showing  piety 
in  the  family  circle,  of  being  ready  to  distribute,  of  manifest- 
ing the  love  which  issues  from  a  pure  heart.  In  the 
personal  life  of  the  Christian,  and  in  the  life  of  the  Christian 
community,  there  were  laws  which  could  not  be  broken — 
the  law  of  purity,  the  law  of  bearing  one  another's  burdens, 
the  law  of  Christ ;  and  St.  Paul  insists  upon  these  personal 
and  social  obligations  in  his  first  letter  and  in  his  last. 

Once  more  :  as  we  recall  to  mind  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul's 
1  Cf.  Lock,  S^.  Paul  the  Master-Builder,  pp.  in,  117. 


442    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

first  and  second  captivity,  as  we  think  of  the  wide  and 
varied  interests  with  which  they  deal,  of  the  care  which 
they  reveal  not  only  for  the  welfare  of  the  Churches,  but 
for  the  well-being  of  the  simplest  ties  of  home  and  family 
life,  as  we  mark  the  deepening  affection  which  would  em- 
brace all  who  loved  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  uncorruptness, 
and  the  breadth  of  sympathy  which  would  take  account  of 
whatsoever  things  were  true  and  honourable,  lovely  and 
gracious,  just  and  pure,  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  same  St. 
Chrysostom  who  bids  us  remember  that  even  if  the  Apostle 
was  a  Paul  he  was  also  a  man,  should  also  give  him  that 
title  which  has  become  so  closely  associated  with  his  name, 
"  the  heart  of  the  world."  And  yet  with  all  this  wealth  and 
width  of  human  affection,  sustaining,  strengthening,  guiding 
it,  there  was  the  same  constant  and  familiar  reference  as  in 
earlier  days  to  divine  truths  and  divine  aid.  Whether  St. 
Paul  is  writing  his  great  philosophical  letter  to  Rome,  or 
whether  he  is  writing  to  Philemon  from  the  capital 
about  a  runaway  slave,  we  have  the  same  words  of 
greeting,  "  Grace  to  you  and  peace  from  God  the  Father  and 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Never  in  the  Apostle's  mind  are  the 
claims  of  Christian  philanthropy  dissociated  from  the  highest 
doctrinal  teaching  ;  but  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  these  claims,  imparting  to  them  from 
its  own  divine  light  and  life  a  fresh  and  fadeless  beauty.^ 

'  On  the  evidence  for  St.  Paul's  second  imprisonment,  and  for  the 
Pastoral  Epistles,  the  present  writer  may  refer  to  an  article  contributed 
to  the  Critical  Review,  viii.  336-44,  and  to  the  Expositor' s  Greek 
Test.,  ii.  552.  He  is  glad  to  be  able  to  add  some  recent  remarks  of 
great  value  by  Dr.  Zahn,  Art.  "  Paulus,"  in  Herzog's  Realencyclopddie, 
Heft  141,  p.  370  (1Q04) ;  and  by  Professor  Ramsay,  Hastings,  B.D.,  v. 
p.  376  :  "  If  Clement  (Cor.  5)  had  caught  the  least  spark  of  the  Pauline 
and  the  Roman  spirit  and  thought,  he  could  not  have  called  Rome  (as 
some  modern  scholars  maintain  that  he  did)  '  the  goal  of  the  West '  or 
'  his  limit  towards  the  West,'  to  rtpfia  tjjs  Svo-ewy  ;  and  Lightfoot  has 
rightly  expressed  the  general  Roman  point  of  view  in  that  age,  which 
looked  on  Rome  as  the  centre  of  empire,  not  as  its  limit,  nor  as  belong- 
ing to  the  Western  part  of  the  Empire." 


LECTURE    XXI 
ST.    PAUL    AND   PERSONAL    DEVOTION 

IN  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  recent  books  upon  the 
language  of  the  New  Testament  we  have  been 
reminded  how  often  the  title  "  Son  of  God "  occurs  in 
imperial  inscriptions.  It  is  used  as  a  title  of  the  Roman 
emperor,  Cassar  Augustus,  and  his  successors,  apparently  as 
a  translation  of  the  Latin  words  Divi  filiits. 

Amongst  these  inscriptions  Dr.  Deissmann  mentions  one 
at  Tarsus  in  honour  of  Augustus  ;  and  he  conjectures  that 
St.  Paul,  in  his  younger  days,  may  well  have  read  the 
striking  words  "  Son  of  God  "  before  they  became  known  to 
him  in  all  their  later  fulness  of  meaning."  It  is  an 
interesting  conjecture.  But  we  must  not  forget  that  St. 
Paul  was  a  Jew,  and  the  title  "  Son  of  God  "  would  have 
been  known  to  him  as  a  theological  student  from  Jewish 
sources.  And  if  in  his  earlier  days  he  had  read  the 
inscription  at  Tarsus,  his  thoughts  would  probably  have  led 
him  to  contrast  the  title  as  applied  to  a  Roman  emperor 
with  its  application  to  the  Messiah  expected  by  every  pious 
Jew. 

But  more  than  this,  a  day  came  when  St.  Paul  would 
have  read  such  a  title  no  longer  with  Jewish,  but  with 
Christian  eyes,  and  the  contrast  would  have  been  deeper 
still  between  the  Caesar  on  his  throne  and  the  Son  of  God, 
by  faith  in  whom  the  Apostle  lived,  the  Son  of  God  who 

1  Bibelstudien,  i.  167. 
443 


444    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

had  loved  him  and  given  Himself  up  for  him.  St.  Paul's 
conversion  had  brought  him  into  relationship  with  a  person 
and  a  life,  and  no  one  has  helped  to  emphasise  this  more 
than  Dr.  Harnack  :  "  Above  all  things,"  he  writes,  "  Jesus 
was  felt  to  be  the  active  principle  of  individual  life."  "  It 
is  not  I  that  lives,"  he  adds,  "  but  Christ  that  liveth  in  me," 
quoting  the  words  of  St.  Paul.  Or,  as  Weinel  still  more 
recently  puts  it,  "  On  that  day  before  Damascus,  Saul  died, 
and  yet  from,  that  day  he  lived  ;  for  if  he  lives  no  longer, 
another  lives  in  him  :  a  Being  from  another  world  henceforth 
lives  in  his  heart."  ^ 

No  man  insisted  more  strongly  than  St.  Paul  upon  the 
value  of  the  corporate  Christian  life  ;  but  no  man  knew  more 
fully  that  that  corporate  life  could  only  be  sustained  by  the 
constant  endeavour  "  to  present  every  man  perfect  in  Christ." 

Now  this  conception  of  union  with  Christ,  of  growth,  of 
perfection  in  Christ,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  meets  us  in  the 
Apostle's  earliest  letters,  and  not  only  in  those  of  his  later 
years,  is  no  doubt  a  conception  which  may  be  called  mystical, 
a  word  of  which  we  have  frequent  mention  in  our  own  day. 
No  later  mystic  ever  desired  more  intensely  than  St.  Paul  that 
his  own  will  might  be  merged  in  the  will  of  God,  that  the 
God  of  peace  would  sanctifiy  him  wholly,  and  that  his  love 
might  be  free  from  every  trace  of  self-seeking  and  self- 
interest.  "  This  is  the  will  of  God,"  St.  Paul  says  in  his 
earliest  Epistle,  "  even  your  sanctification."  In  a  life  of 
prayer  without  ceasing  he  reads  the  will  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  concerning  his  converts. 

The  German  philosopher  Nietzsche,  of  whom  we  have 
heard  so  much  in  recent  years,  seems  to  have  regarded  St. 
Paul  almost  as  if  he  had  been  some  hated  enemy  before 
him  in  the  flesh,  and  he  has  contrasted  the  Apostle's 
ecstasies  and  reveries  with  those  of  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  mystics,  Madame  Guyon,  much  to  the 
*  Paulus,  p.  74  (1904). 


ST.    PAUL   AND   PERSONAL   DEVOTION     44S 

advantage  of  the  latter.  But  a  countryman  of  his  own, 
Professor  Weinel,  to  whom  we  owe  one  of  the  most  recent 
of  German  monographs  on  the  Apostle's  life  and  work/  has 
justly  reminded  Nietzsche  that,  while  Madame  Guyon  lived  in 
abnormal  conditions,  and  seemed,  in  her  nervous  excitement, 
to  hover,  as  it  were,  between  this  world  and  the  next, 
St.  Paul,  in  spite  of  his  visions  and  revelations,  makes  upon 
us  the  impression  of  a  man  who  possessed  the  full  powers 
of  manhood  unimpaired,  a  man  who,  in  spite  of  his 
ecstasies,  was  full  of  wise  intelligence,  and  clear  and  concise 
in  his  judgments.^ 

No  doubt  the  life  of  St.  Paul  had  points  of  contact  with 
that  of  many  a  visionary  ;  but  the  Apostle's  life  is  not 
dependent  upon  any  ecstatic  conditions  ;  it  is  rather  a  firm, 
unruffled,  confident  life  in  the  Spirit,  i.e.  in  Christ.  It  is  a 
well-merited  rebuke  from  one  who  has  studied,  as  carefully 
as  any  of  his  German  contemporaries,  the  character  and 
career  of  St.  Paul. 

"  Pray  without  ceasing."  The  later  mystic  found  such 
close  union  with  God  that  he  does  not  so  much  pray  to  as 
live  in  God  ;  that  prayer  is  not  any  particular  action,  but  is 
rather  the  work  of  the  soul's  whole  being.^ 

St.  Paul,  too,  lived,  as  it  were,  in  the  atmosphere  of  prayer ; 
but  as  in  the  case  of  the  best  and  the  truest  mystics,  St. 
Paul's  mysticism  was  marked  by  this  feature,  that  it  was 
never  divorced  from  "  the  work  of  faith  and  the  labour  of 
love."  The  words  occur  in  one  of  St.  Paul's  earliest  Epistles 
(i  Thess.  i.  3),  and  this  same  Epistle  in  which  we  read  the 
command  to  pray  without  ceasing  is  also  the  Epistle  which 
contains  the  most  strenuous  exhortation  to  hard  and  earnest 
work.      There  is    nothing   here  of  the  visionary  or  fanatic, 

'  Weinel,  Paulus,  p.  109. 

^  No  one  has  insisted  more  strongly  than  Dr.  Clemen  upon  the 
splendid  missionary  enthusiasm  of  St.  Paul,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
upon  his  sobriety  of  judgment  {Paulus,  ii.  318). 

^  Overton's  Life  and  OJ>mions  of  WilliaTn  Law,  p.  z^y 


446    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

and  those  who  are  rash  enough  to  regard  St.  Paul  as  such 
must  look  for  other  authorities  than  the  Apostle's  own  state- 
ments to  support  their  contention.  Nothing  would  have 
been  easier  for  the  Apostle,  if  he  had  been  a  mere  enthusiast, 
than  to  throw  himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  excitement, 
and  thus  to  encourage  the  idleness  which  threatened  the 
sobriety,  the  peace,  the  very  existence  of  the  Church  in 
Thessalonica. 

But  what  could  be  further  from  such  mad  counsels  than 
such  words  as  these,  "  And  that  ye  study,"  i.e.  that  ye  make 
it  your  ambition  "  to  be  quiet  and  to  do  your  own  business, 
and  to  work  with  your  hands,  even  as  we  charged  you  "  ? 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Apostle  who  thus 
preached  the  dignity  of  prayer  and  the  dignity  of  work  was 
introducing  a  silent  and  yet  an  irresistible  revolution  into 
the  whole  social  life  of  the  ancient  world.  You  may  urge, 
perhaps,  that  Judaism,  unlike  Greece  and  Rome,  had  already 
reckoned  manual  labour  in  the  highest  esteem  ;  but  it 
should  also  be  remembered  that  there  was  a  time  in  Jewish 
history  when  this  had  not  been  the  case.  And  although  in 
the  days  of  our  Lord  the  dignity  of  labour  was  no  doubt 
fully  recognised  and  enforced,  this  change  from  the  manner 
in  which  labour  was  regarded  in  the  Apocrypha,  notably  in 
Ecclesiasticus,  seems  to  have  been  due  to  no  religious  motive, 
but  rather  to  .social  and  political  considerations.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  Christianity  the  motive  was  solely  and 
distinctively  religious.  And  whatever  may  have  been  the 
developments  of  civilisation,  the  spirit  which  first  honoured 
the  mechanic  and  the  worker  with  his  hands,  that  hallowing 
of  toil  which  first  taught  the  world  that  trade  and  industry 
need  never  degrade  the  body  and  soul  of  a  free  man,  was 
the  creation  of  Christianity  and  of  Christianity  alone. 

This  aspect  of  the  religious  life  is  recognised  not  only  in 
St.  Paul's  earliest  Epistles,  but  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Church's    history,  as,  e.g.^  in  the   catacombs.     The    figures 


ST.   PAUL   AND    PERSONAL   DEVOTION     447 

which  were  once  thought  to  represent  instruments  of  torture 
are  now  seen  to  represent  the  tools  of  the  baker,  the  smith, 
the  gardener.  The  word  operarius  first  became  in  the 
Christian  Church  a  title  of  honour,  and  there  is  something 
very  suggestive  in  the  old  tradition,  if  it  be  nothing  more, 
which  assigned  some  trade  or  occupation  to  each  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles  o."  Christ.  The  miserable  idleness  which 
prompted  men  to  dawdle  away  hour  after  hour  on  the  steps 
of  the  circus  or  the  theatre  was  strongly  condemned  by  the 
Church,  and  Christians  withdrew  themselves  from  the  gross, 
sensual  pleasures  around  them,  and  from  employments  which 
were  worse  than  death,  by  honest  work  and  the  recollection 
of  the  dignity  impressed  upon  it  by  the  Son  of  God. 
And  those  who  thus  worked  were  earnestly  taught  to 
work  not  only  for  themselves,  but  that  they  might  have 
to  give  to  him  that  needed  ;  and  as  a  simple  matter  of  fact 
the  largest  share  of  alms  to  the  Church's  labour  of  love  was 
contributed  by  those  who  earned  their  daily  bread  in  the 
sweat  of  their  brow.  Thus  from  the  first  St.  Paul  seems  to 
have  anticipated  and  to  have  refuted  two  prevalent  mistakes 
which  arise  when  men,  on  the  one  hand,  banish  themselves 
from  social  communion  with  the  idea  of  becoming  purer  and 
holier,  or  when,  on  the  other  hand,  men  imagine  that 
socialism  alone  can  regenerate  human  nature,  or  curb  its 
passions  by  a  motive  power  as  strong  as  the  love  of  a 
Christian  for  his  Lord. 

"  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us."  The  words 
contain  the  motive  power  in  which  one  of  the  most 
recent  of  German  critics.  Dr.  Clemen,  finds  the  true 
explanation  of  St.  Paul's  vigorous  life  and  work,  of  his 
intellectual  and  moral  virtues,  of  his  capacity  for  dealing 
with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  ;  and  we  welcome  such 
an  acknowledgment  as  a  testimony  not  always  borne  to 
the  great  and  abiding  inspiration  of  St.  Paul's  life.  "  The 
love  of  Christ  constraineth  us  "  :  in  such  words  we  see  the 


448     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

truest  safeguard  against  what  has  been  called  the  anti- 
nomianism  of  mysticism  ;  the  claim  of  complete  freedom 
from  every  code  but  the  law  of  love.  The  constraint  of  which 
the  Apostle  speaks  is  itself  the  expression  of  the  highest  law. 
"  The  love  of  Christ  constraineth  us."  Why  ?  "  Because," 
adds  St.  Paul,  "we  thus  judge  that  one  died  for  all;  therefore, 
all  died  ;  and  He  died  for  all,  that  they  which  live  should  no 
longer  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  Him  who  for  their 
sakes  died  and  rose  again  "  (R.V.). 

Men  have  often  drawn  comparisons  between  Paul  and 
Seneca,  and  a  recent  critic  of  the  latter  tells  us  that  the 
gospel  of  Seneca,  with  all  its  searching  power,  seems  to  be 
without  some  of  the  essential  elements  of  a  religion  effective 
enough  to  work  upon  human  character.  "  Where,  it  may 
be  asked,  is  the  power  to  come  from  which  shall  nerve  the 
repentant  one  to  essay  the  steep  ascent  to  the  calm  of  inde- 
fectible virtue  ?  and  what  is  the  reward  which  can  more 
than  compensate  for  the  great  renunciation  ?  "  ^  St.  Paul's 
words  answer  both  questions  :  the  love  of  Christ  is  the  power, 
and  the  power  is  the  reward. 

We  know  how  the  word  "  conscience  "  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment has  become  a  Pauline  word,  and  we  need  not  hesitate 
to  acknowledge  that  the  Apostle  would  naturally  derive  it 
from  the  Stoic  teachers  who  influenced  his  language  and  his 
thought ;  for  it  is  amongst  the  Stoics  that  the  word  "  con- 
science "  first  received  anything  like  a  full  moral  significance, 
and  became,  as  it  were,  current  coin  in  the  mixed  vocabulary 
of  the  Roman  world.^  And  to  conscience  St.  Paul  could 
appeal  as  a  witness  of  the  sincerity  of  his  purpose,  as  a 
judge  of  the  truthfulness  of  his  preaching,  as  a  motive  for 
Christian  action  in  Church  and  State  alike.  To  have  a 
conscience  void  of  offence,  a  conscience  pure  and  good,  was 

1  Dr.  S.  Dill,  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to  M.  A  urelzus,  p.  3 10  (1904). 
For  the  influence  of  Athenodorus  see  Art.  "  Tarsus  "  in  Hastings'  B.D. 

^  Davison,  The  Christian  Conscience,  p.  26  ;  Bacon,  Story  of  St. 
Paul,  p.  21  ;  Lightfoot,  Phili-p^ians ,  p.  303. 


ST.   PAUL  AND   PERSONAL   DEVOTION    449 

the  aim  of  Christian   endeavour  and  the  foundation  of  the 
Christian  labour  of  love. 

But  conscience  was  what  it  was  for  St.  Paul,  something 
much  more  than  a  natural  faculty  common  to  every  man 
alike,  because  in  the  Son  of  God  revealed  in  the  Apostle, 
"  in  Christ,"  he  had  found  a  witness,  a  motive,  and  a  judge 
combined.  Christ,  who  had  become  to  the  Christian  not 
only  wisdom  and  righteousness,  but  also  sanctification  and 
redemption,  was  Himself  the  guide  of  conscience  and  its 
Lord.  In  Christ  the  love  of  God  was  shed  abroad  in  men's 
hearts,  and  in  proportion  as  they  yielded  themselves  to  it 
they  found  a  relief  from  the  condemning  voice  within  and  a 
power  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  moral  law.  And  as  in  the  light 
of  that  love  sacrifice  was  freely  offered,  so  service  was  gladly 
welcomed.  Our  Lord  had  recognised  and  taught  that  the 
pagan  ideal  was  the  opposite,  and  He  draws  in  pointed 
language  the  contrast  between  it  and  the  Christian  life.  On 
the  one  side  stood  the  princes  of  this  world  :  "  Ye  know  that 
the  rulers  of  the  Gentiles  lord  it  over  them,  and  their  great 
ones  exercise  authority  over  them  "  ;  and  on  the  other  side 
stood  those  who  were  to  sit  indeed  upon  twelve  thrones,  but 
who  had  yet  to  learn  that  in  the  kingdom  of  God  greatness 
meant  ministry,  and  primacy  meant  servitude  (Matt.  xx.  25, 
Mark  x.  42)}  There  is,  then,  a  sense  in  which  the  Christian 
must  always  be  ready  to  obey  the  counsel,  "  Fling  away 
ambition,  love  thyself  last."  {Henry  VIII.,  iii.  2.)  And  yet 
was  he  to  entertain  no  ambition,  no  true  self-love  ?  St.  Paul, 
we  cannot  doubt,  had  his  early  ambitions  and  his  good 
prospects,  however  silly  and  calumnious  were  the  Jewish  stories 
which  described  him  as  an  ambitious  man  thwarted  and 
disappointed  in  his  aims.  But  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  St.  Paul  had  brought  himself  under  bondage  to  all 
(i  Cor.  ix.  19),  and  his  old  ambitions  and  views  of  life  had 
given  place  to  the  one  legitimate  ambition.  "  We  labour," 
'  Feine,  Jesus  Christus  und  Paulus^  p.  'j^. 

29 


450    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

he  writes  to  the  Corinthians,  i.e.  we  make  it  our  ambition, 
"  whether  at  home  or  absent,  to  be  well-pleasing  unto  Christ  " 
(2  Cor.  V.  9)  :  "Hasc  una  legitima  ambitio,"  as  Bengel  so  finely 
called  it.  It  is  an  ambition  attained,  as  holy  and  humble 
men  of  heart  have  testified  in  life  and  in  death,  and  yet  an 
ambition  never  satisfied,  at  least  on  this  side  of  the  grave  : 
"  Not  as  though  t  had  already  obtained,  or  am  already  made 
perfect."  How  fully  Bengel  had  himself  made  that  ambition 
of  St.  Paul  his  own  we  may  learn  from  the  words  repeated 
to  him  as  his  eyes  closed  in  death  :  "  Lord  Jesus,  unto  Thee 
I  live,  unto  Thee  I  suffer,  unto  Thee  I  die  ;  thine  I  am, 
living  or  dying." 

There  is  one  other  passage  in  St.  Paul's  writings  in  which 
he  again  connects  this  same  word,  "  we  aim,"  i.e.  we  make 
it  our  ambition,  with  his  ministerial  work.  "  Yea,  making 
it  my  aim,"  he  writes  from  Corinth  to  the  Church  in  Rome, 
"  being  ambitious  so  to  preach  the  Gospel,  not  where  Christ 
was  already  named,  but,  as  it  is  written  :  They  shall  see,  to 
whom  no  tidings  of  him  came  "  (Rom.  xv.  20). 

St.  Paul,  then,  was  not  content  to  confine  himself  to  the 
same  ground,  to  work,  as  it  were,  in  the  same  groove  ;  he 
would  seek  to  plant  his  message  amidst  new  surroundings  ; 
he  would  look  for  a  harvest  on  other  soil.  Truly  it  was  a 
grand  ambition,  thus,  in  the  abundance  of  his  own  poverty, 
to  make  others  rich.  And  yet,  even  in  the  face  of  such  a 
result  as  the  obedience  of  the  Gentiles,  boasting  is  excluded  ; 
the  Apostle  never  forgets  that  he  serves  the  Lord  Christ : 
"  I  will  not  dare  to  speak  of  any  things  save  those  which 
Christ  wrought  through  me."  And  so,  when  he  writes  from 
Corinth  to  Rome  of  fresh  regions  won  over  to  the  faith, 
he  still  speaks  of  his  work  as  fulfilling  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
the  Gospel  which  he  had  made  it  his  ambition  to  preach 
from  Jerusalem  and  round  about  even  unto  lllyricum,  thus 
marking  the  whole  extent  of  his  labours.  And  in  Corinth 
itself,  intellectual,  moral,  social,  ritual  difficulties  had  claimed 


ST.   PAUL   AND   PERSONAL   DEVOTION    451 

St.  Paul's  attention  ;  and  if  we  ask  how  they  were  met,  we 
find  that  in  each  case  appeal  was  made  to  the  Person  or 
the  life  or  the  teaching  of  Christ.  And  so  it  ceases  to  be 
surprising  that  in  no  Epistle  do  we  meet  with  the  intro- 
duction of  the  name  of  Christ  so  continuously  as  in  the 
First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians.  And  that  name,  the  name, 
was  so  often  on  the  Apostle's  lips,  because  although  he  was 
absent  from  his  true  home  Christ  Himself  was  present  in 
his  heart,  and  his  sole  ambition  and  his  only  glory  was  to 
be  able  to  say, "  But  we  have  the  mind  of  Christ." 

"Christ!  I  am  Christ's,  and  let  the  name  suffice  you, 
Ay  for  me,  too,  He  greatly  hath  suffic'd  ; 
Lo,  with  no  winning  words  I  would  entice  you  : 
Paul  has  no  honour  and  no  friend  but  Christ." 

If  indeed  it  can  be  truly  said  that  no  one  can  doubt  the 
power  of  personality  in  the  religious  life,  and  if  all  religions 
which  occupy  the  foremost  place  in  the  world  testify  to  this 
in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  such  a  fact  is  pre-eminently 
true  of  Christianity.  One  testimony  after  another  might  be 
quoted  in  proof  of  this.  But  if  we  turn  to  a  little  popular 
book  just  published  by  one  of  the  most  famous  of  "scientific" 
German  critics  for  the  benefit  of  the  German  laity,  Professor 
Wernle's  Sources  of  the  Life  of  fesns,  we  find  that  whatever 
else  in  Wernle's  view  we  may  learn  from  St.  Paul,  we  may 
at  least  learn  this,  that  in  Jesus,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  He  died  a  death  of  shame  on  a  cross,  St.  Paul  saw 
his  own  life  and  that  of  the  world  divided  as  it  were  into 
two  parts — with  Jesus,  without  Jesus.  In  words  of  almost 
evangelical  fervour  he  adds  that  in  Jesus  we  behold  a  Man 
who  helps  us  to  understand  aright  ourselves,  the  world 
and  God,  who  accompanies  us  as  the  truest  Friend  and 
Guide  in  the  needs  and  struggles  of  the  present,  and  to 
whom  we  can  entrust  ourselves  with  all  confidence  for  the 
future. 

'  Die  Quellendes  Lebens  Jesu,  pp.  4,  87  (1904). 


452     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

In  face  of  the  intense  personal  devotion  of  St.  Paul  to 
our  Lord,  it  becomes  unintelligible  to  speak  of  the 
Apostle  as  if  he  was  the  founder  of  Christianity.  How, 
indeed,  can  we  even  speak  of  him,  with  Wrede,  in  another 
of  the  series  of  popular  books  which  are  at  this  moment 
issuing  from  the  press  in  Germany,  as  the  second  founder 
of  Christianity,  or  proclaim  that  St.  Paul,  although  not 
better,  was  greater  than  his  Master  ?  But  St.  Paul's  sole 
ambition  is  to  gain  Christ  and  to  be  found  of  Him  ;  he  is 
calm  and  secure  when  he  can  say  that  he  has  the  mind  of 
Christ ;  he  only  asserts  himself  when  he  has  no  command 
from  the  Lord  ;  he  bids  his  followers  to  imitate  his  example, 
but  he  adds  in  the  same  breath,  "  as  he  also  imitated  Christ," 
and  we  have  seen  how  throughout  his  Epistles  he,  too,  goes, 
as  it  were,  back  to  Christ ;  he  speaks  of  his  own  teaching 
everywhere  in  every  Church,  but  that  teaching  was  to  be 
a  remembrance  of  his  ways  which  were  in  Christ  (i  Cor. 
iv.  17). 

It  might  perhaps  be  expected  at  first  sight  that  St.  Paul, 
who  had  probably  not  known  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  like  His 
immediate  followers  in  His  earthly  walk,  would  be  always 
in  danger  of  indulging  in  all  kinds  of  ecstasies  and  reveries, 
of  no  longer  keeping  the  Christ  before  his  mind  as  an 
historical  Person  who  had  lived  on  the  earth,  and  whose 
example,  men  and  women  could  make  in  some  degree  their 
own. 

But  it  is  remarkable,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to  show, 
that  St.  Paul,  while  he  regards  Christ  as  the  source  and 
principle  of  his  life,  whilst  for  him  to  live  on  earth  is 
"  Christ  "  and  to  be  "  with  Christ "  is  his  deepest  longing 
(Phil.  i.  21,  23),^  is  by  no  means  concerned  only  with  those, 

'  "  St.  Paul  was  able  to  ignore  many  aspects  of  the  Last  Thing^s  on 
which  Jewish  and  Christian  Apocalyptic  had  set  great  importance. 
To  go  to  Christ,  to  be  with  Christ,  overshadowed  all  the  accompani- 
ments of  the  End"  (Kennedy,  Sf.  Paul's  Concepiioti  of  the  Last 
Things,  p.  312). 


ST.    PAUL   AND    PERSONAL   DEVOTION     453 

and  by  no  means  appeals  only  to  those,  whose  religious  life  is 
of  the  same  mystical  order  as  his  own.  And  the  time  of  his 
life  when  it  has  been  urged  that  his  forced  inactivity  at 
Rome  would  be  sure  to  lead  a  man  of  his  temperament  to 
develop  his  already  existing  tendency  to  mystical  thought 
is  also  the  time  which  is  marked  by  the  most  practical,  if 
also  the  most  mystical,  of  his  Epistles.^ 

In  the  enforcement  of  the  simple  duties  to  which  these 
Epistles  so  pointedly  refer,  Peine  well  reminds  us  that  the 
Apostle  demands  the  fulfilment  of  the  law  of  love  by  all 
Christians  as  an  obligation  incumbent  upon  them  by  the  life 
and  self-sacrifice  of  Christ  Himself:  this  obligation  and  its 
motive  St.  Paul  proclaims  in  his  latest  as  in  his  earliest 
Epistles  (Phil.  i.  8  ;  Eph.  iv.  15,  v.  2).  The  same  writer,  in 
one  of  the  most  striking  passages  of  his  book,  points  out 
how,  whilst  a  St.  Augustine  may  be  said  to  have  re-discovered, 
as  it  were,  the  humility  of  Christ,  whilst  a  St.  Bernard  was 
absorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  the  sufferings  and  Passion 
of  Christ,  whilst  a  St.  Francis  was  devoted  to  an  imitation 
of  the  poverty  of  Christ,  all  these  differing  traits  of  practical 
love  were  combined  in  the  image  of  the  character  of  Jesus 
which  lived  in  the  soul  of  St.  Paul.  And  if  we  ask  how  the 
Apostle  learnt  these  three  great  characteristics  of  the  perfect 
life,  his  Epistles  show  us  that  he  learnt  them  from  the  know- 
ledge of  the  historical  Jesus  as  He  lived  and  walked  amongst 
men  (cf.  Phil.  ii.  5  ;  2  Cor.  i.  5,  iv.  5  ;  2  Cor.  viii.  9,  x.  i  ; 
I  Thess.  i.  6 ;  Phil.  iii.  10  ;  2  Thess,  iii.  5).  Humility, 
suffering,  poverty — surely  to  live  a  life  of  which  all  these 
formed  a  definite  part  would  be  to  incur  a  burden  too  heavy 
to  be  borne  !  And  yet  we  recall  St.  Paul's  utterance  of 
another  paradox  of  the  Christian  life,  "  as  sorrowful,  yet 
always  rejoicing."  Homeless,  he  could  find  a  joy  in  human 
friendship  ;  once,  if  not  twice,  in  the  one  private  note  which 

Mnge,   "The  Mystical  Element  in  St.  Paul's  Theology,"  in  the 
Expository  August,  1896  (p.  120). 


454     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

has  come  down  to  us,  he  speaks  of  the  joy  and  comfort 
which  he  had  gained  from  the  friendship  of  Philemon.  In  his 
earliest  Epistles  he  speaks  of  those  whom  he  had  won  to  the 
faith  of  Christ  as  his  glory  and  his  joy  ;  and  in  later  years, 
in  the  loneliness  of  his  Roman  prison,  he  speaks  of  his 
absent  brethren  at  Philippi  as  his  joy  and  crown  ;  later  still, 
in  his  last  letter  before  his  death,  he  expresses  the  desire 
that  he  may  be  filled  with  joy  in  the  fellowship  of  his  son 
Timothy  (2  Tim.  i.  4),  a  fellowship  to  be  realised  in  a 
common  love  and  hope,  if  not  in  a  mutual  presence. 

In  the  earliest  group  of  the  Apostle's  Epistles  the  key- 
note is  struck,  "  Rejoice  always  "  (i  Thess.  v.  16),  the  keynote 
of  a  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  which  was  to  prevail  even  in  the 
midst  of  afflictions  (i  Thess.  i.  6).  In  the  building  up  of  the 
Christian  life,  whilst  "  love  was  the  foundation,  joy  was 
the  superstructure."  The  note  of  joy  is  prolonged  as  he  bids 
the  Roman  Christians  to  be  in  full  sympathy  with  all  that 
rejoiced  no  less  than  with  those  who  wept.  Amidst  the 
deepest  anxieties  of  his  calling  and  the  painful  disregard  of 
his  authority,  St.  Paul  tells  the  Corinthians  of  his  joy,  which 
is,  he  says,  the  joy  of  them  all  ;  he  thinks  of  himself  as  a 
helper  in  their  joy,  and  not  as  having  lordship  over  their 
faith.  And  it  is,  perhaps,  no  wonder  that  men  should  find  a 
motto  for  St.  Paul's  life  in  the  words  taken  from  the  Epistle, 
of  which  the  most  marked  characteristic  is  Christian  joy, 
words  in  which  the  Apostle  speaks  of  his  readiness  to  be 
poured  out  as  a  libation  in  the  shedding  of  his  blood,  and  of 
his  joyfulness  in  the  thought  of  associating  his  converts  with 
him  in  a  community  of  Christian  sacrifice  and  suffering 
(Phil.  ii.  17).' 

But  the  joy  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks  is  a  joy  which  had  been 

gained  after  a  struggle  ;  this  inward  peace  has  followed  upon  a 

storm.      Men  have  disputed,  and   probably  will   continue  to 

dispute,  as  to  whether,  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle 

1  Weinel,  Paulus,  p.  141. 


ST.   PAUL   AND    PERSONAL   DEVOTION     455 

to  the  Romans,  we  are  to  find  a  picture  of  St.  Paul's  own 
life.^  But  one  thing  is  certain,  that  the  man  who  wrote  that 
chapter  must  have  known  in  his  inmost  being  the  force  of 
temptation,  the  strength  of  sin,  and  the  power  of  its  law,  the 
struggle  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit.^  And  he  must 
have  known  in  his  own  experience  what  it  was  to  delight  in 
the  law  of  God  after  the  inner  man,  i.e.  in  his  true  personality, 
and  to  have  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  which  was  life  and 
peace. 

But  St  Paul's  joy  is  so  deep  and  so  true  because  he  never 
forgets  that  even  when  a  battle  is  won  the  enemy  may 
attack  again,  he  never  forgets  the  real  nature  of  the  foes  with 
whom  he  has  to  deal.  May  we  not  see  this  in  the  two 
Epistles  which  were  written  so  nearly  at  the  same  time  in 
his  first  Roman  imprisonment?  In  the  one  (Philippians)  he 
tells  us  of  the  joy  of  preaching  Christ,  the  joy  of  Christian 
service  and  friendship,  the  joy  of  the  Christian  life  ;  in  the 
other  (Ephesians),  whilst  he  speaks  so  fully  of  the  life  of 
the  Church,  of  the  citizenship  of  the  saints,  of  the  house- 
hold of  God,  he  is  ever  mindful  that  there  is  a  dark 
world,  a  realm  of  darkness,  in  which  the  Christian  has  to 
wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against  spiritual 
and   invisible  foes. 

But  even  in  the  preparation  for  that  war  from  which 
there  was  no  discharge,  St.  Paul  could  rejoice  and  be  glad,  and 
he  could  write  to  the  Christians  at  Colosse  from  the  same 
Roman  imprisonment,  that  he  was  with  them  in  the  spirit, 
joying  and  beholding  their  order  and  the  steadfastness  of 
their  faith  in  Christ  (Col.  ii.  5).^ 

Contrast  this  deep  and  spiritual  joy,  this  joy  in  the  Lord, 

1  See  the  remarks  of  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romans,  p.  181,  and 
Kennedy's  St.  Paul's  Conce;ption  of  the  Last  Things,  p.  146. 

2  On  this  sense  of  sin,  and  St.  Paul's  revolt  from  the  yoke  of  sin,  see 
Ramsay,  "  The  Attitude  of  St.  Paul  to  Greek  Philosophy,"  Hastings, 
B.D.  V.  150. 

^  See,  on  the  possible  military  metaphor,  Dr.  T.  K.  Abbott,  in  loco. 


456     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

which  finds  a  place  not  only  in  a  St.  Paul,  but  in  a  St.  Peter, 
as  he  bids  his  converts  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full 
of  glory,  in  a  St.  John  as  he  prays  that  his  joy  may  be 
fulfilled,  in  a  St.  James  as  he  bids  his  brethren  count  it  all 
joy  to  be  tested  by  trials,  the  overflowing  bounding  joy  which 
finds  a  place  in  the  life  of  the  early  Church  (Acts  ii.),  with 
the  gloom  and  terror  which  pervaded  the  highest  social  circles 
of  pagan  society,  with  the  pessimism  which  is  marked  on  the 
pages  of  poet,  philosopher,  historian  alike.  It  was  the 
contrast  between  a  living  hope  and  a  despair  which  was  a 
sickness  unto  death,  a  hope  which  was  to  St.  Paul  an 
anchor  of  the  soul,  both  sure  and  steadfast,  and  in  the 
possession  of  which  he  could  pray  for  the  Christian  Church, 
even  as  he  marked  the  fall  of  Israel,  their  hardened  heart, 
and  their  darkened  eyes,  or  as  men  and  women  passed 
before  him  given  up  to  passions  of  dishonour,  serving  the 
creature  and  exchanging  the  truth  for  a  lie :  "  Now  the 
God  of  peace  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace  in  believing, 
that  ye  may  abound  in  hope  in  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost." 

Once  more  :  we  may  note  that  St.  Paul's  mysticism  was 
very  far  removed  from  a  mysticism  falsely  so  called,  which 
has  sometimes  undervalued  and  despised  the  sacraments  and 
ordinances  of  the  Church. 

At  his  Baptism  the  Christian  made  a  profession  of 
obedience  to  his  Lord  ;  but  more  than  that,  his  relationship 
with  Christ  became  so  close  and  intimate  that  it  might  be 
fitly  spoken  of  as  actual  union. ^  And  if  we  ask  how  the 
union  thus  begun  is  to  be  sustained,  St.  Paul  teaches  us  to 
see  in  the  Holy  Communion  a  constant  renewal  of  it :  "  The 
bread  which  we  break,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  body 
of  Christ  ?  " 

Moreover,  it  is  noteworthy  that  St.   Paul  thus  emphasises 
the  importance  of  these  two  great  Sacraments  of  Baptism 
1  Sanday  and  Headlam,  Romatts,  p.  154. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   PERSONAL   DEVOTION     457 

and  the  Holy  Communion  in  writing  to  the  two  Churches  of 
Rome  and  Corinth.  Who  shall  say  what  help  the  Apostle's 
solemn  and  inspiring  words  may  have  been  to  the  Christian 
societies  in  those  two  great  centres  of  pagan  life  and  culture, 
those  little  groups  of  Christians  striving  together  in  the 
faith  of  the  Gospel,  and  doing  their  best  to  remember  in 
the  midst  of  every  kind  of  vice  and  temptation  that  in  the 
Cross  of  Christ  the  world  was  crucified  unto  them  and  they 
unto  the  world  ?  But  crucifixion  was  painful,  and  it  could 
only  be  endured  by  union  with  Him  who,  though  once 
crucified  through  weakness,  was  now  living  by  the  power 
of  God. 

In  the  strength  of  that  union  St.  Paul  could  say,  "  Come, 
self-devotion,  high  and  pure  "  ;  he  could  find  that  singleness 
of  heart  and  aim,  that  detachment  from  mean  ambition  and 
petty  rivalries  which  marked  the  whole  of  his  Christian  course. 
These  strifes  and  jealousies  look  poor  and  miserable  indeed 
when  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  lives  of  men  who  have 
been  content  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  St.  Paul.  "  I 
have  had  no  home  but  the  world,"  said  the  famous  missionary 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  Capillas,  as  the  mandarins 
condemned  him  to  die,  "  no  bed  but  the  ground,  no  food 
but  what  Providence  has  sent  me  day  by  day,  and  no 
object  but  to  do  and  suffer  for  the  glory  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  for  the  eternal  happiness  of  those  who  believe  in 
His  name."^ 

The  words  breathe  the  very  spirit  of  St.  Paul.  Our  Lord 
had  said  to  His  chosen  followers,  "  Ye  shall  be  "  not  merely 
"  witnesses  unto  Me,"  but  "  My  witnesses  "  (Acts  i.  8,  R.V.), 
an  infallible  promise  and  a  priceless  honour,  realised  by 
those  who  in  the  midst  of  the  fire  have  nevertheless  felt 
themselves  to  be  the  nearest  to  God.  "  For  if  we  died  with 
Him,  we  shall  also  live  with  Him  ;  if  we  endure  we  shall  also 
reign  with  Him  ;  if  we  shall  deny  Him,  He  also  will  deny 
*  Hardwick,  Christ  and  other  Masters,  p.  306. 


458    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

us  ;  if  we  are  faithless,  He  abideth  faithful  ;  for  He  cannot 
deny  Himself"  Such  words  form  the  only  one  of  those 
"  Faithful  Sayings  "  which  finds  a  place  in  the  last  and  dying 
charge  of  St.  Paul  ;  and  the  Apostle  read  in  such  words  the 
law  of  the  life  of  the  Christian  and  the  law  of  the  life  of 
God. 


LECTURE    XXII 
ST.    PAUL    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE 

NO  one  has  enforced  more  pointedly  than  Dr.  Harnack 
the  two  sides  of  the  message  of  the  Gospel,  the 
socialistic  and  the  individualistic.  "  It  is  not  only,"  so  he 
tells  us,  "  that  the  Gospel  preaches  solidarity  and  the  helping 
of  others  ;  it  is  in  this  message  that  its  real  import  consists. 
In  this  sense  it  is  profoundly  socialistic,  just  as  it  is  also 
profoundly  individualistic,  because  it  establishes  the  infinite 
and  independent  value  of  every  human  soul."  Such  and 
similar  statements  obtain  an  illustration  from  the  Epistles  of 
St.  Paul.  No  one  insisted  more  strongly  than  the  Apostle 
upon  the  fulfilling  of  the  law  of  Christ  in  the  bearing  of  one 
another's  burdens  ;  no  one  endeavoured  more  earnestly  to 
inspire  in  the  hearts  of  men  separated  widely  by  social 
distinctions  the  spirit  of  Christian  brotherhood  ;  no  one  ever 
brought  the  highest  sanctions  of  the  Gospel  to  bear  so  closely 
upon  home  and  family  life. 

Here  lay  the  socialistic  side  of  St.  Paul's  work.  How, 
we  ask,  did  the  Apostle  enforce  it  ?  By  the  proclamation, 
you  will  say,  of  great  Christian  principles,  e.g.  in  relation  to 
slavery,  principles  which  did  not  abolish  the  evil,  but  which 
sapped  its  foundations  and  assured  its  final  doom.  As  the 
Master  in  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  so  the  disciple  in  his 
letters  brought  great  principles  to  bear  upon  moral  and 
social  life.  And  in  such  a  procedure  there  was  nothing 
hasty,  nothing  revolutionary.      Nothing,  for  example,  could 

459 


460     TESTIMONY    OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

have  been  worse,  humanly  speaking,  for  the  fate  of  the 
slave  throughout  the  empire,  than  to  have  preached  a 
doctrine  of  resistance  and  an  appeal  to  violence  and  force. 
How  the  spirit  of  St.  Paul's  teaching  grew  and  became  a 
mighty  factor  in  the  early  life  of  the  Church  may  be  seen  by 
the  single  circumstance  that  whilst  thousands  of  epitaphs  in 
the  catacombs  have  been  deciphered,  hardly  one  refers  in 
any  way  to  the  social  condition  of  the  bearer  as  marking 

'^'  either  slave  or  free  man  ;  and  those  antecedents  of  life  which 
are  so  elaborately  marked  in  Pagan  inscriptions  are  hardly 
ever  noted  on  the  Christian's  grave.^  Slavery  in  the 
Christian  Church  had  lost  its  terrors,  and  St.  Paul  can  even 
use  it  as  a  figure  of  the  manner  in  which  Christians  belonged 
to  God.  "  But  now,"  he  writes  to  the  Romans,  "  being  made 
free  from  sin,  and  become  bondservants  to  God,  ye  have 
your  fruit  unto  sanctification  and  the  end  eternal  life " 
(Rom.  vi.  22  ;  cf  verse  i8)  ;  and  to  the  Corinthians  he  writes, 
"  You  were  bought  with  a  price  :  become  not  bondservants  of 
men  "  (i  Cor,  vii.  23  ;  cf  vi.  20).^ 

But  with  all  this  there  was  another  side  to  St.  Paul's 
teaching,  or  rather  a  complement  of  his  teaching,  upon  which 
he  never  failed  to  insist.  St.  Paul  had  to  oppose  evils 
which  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  social  life  of 
the  time,  vices  of  which  in  our  modern  world  it  is  a  shame 
even  to  speak.  How  did  he  accomplish  his  work  ?  By  an 
appeal  to  that  which  Dr.  Harnack  calls  the  value  of  the 
individual  soul :  "  Know  ye  not  that  your  bodies  are  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  "  ^     The  old  Egyptian  was  wont 

'7  to  say  of  a  drunkard  that  he  was  "  a  temple  without  a  god." 
St.  Paul  could  write  to  the  city  which  had  become  a  by- 
word for  sensuality,  "If  any  man  destroyeth  the  temple  of 
God,  him  shall  God  destroy,  for  the  temple  of  God   is  holy, 

■  E.  De  Pressense,  The  Early  Years  of  Christianity,  iv.  499,  E.T. 
'  Dobschiitz,  Die  urchristlichcn  Gemeinden,  p.  37. 
'  Cf.  E.  Loring  Brace,  Gesta  Christi,  p.  37, 


ST.   PAUL   AND   SOCIAL   LIFE  461 

which  temple  ye  are."  Or,  to  pass  for  a  moment  from  these 
stern  words  of  warning,  consider  the  infinite  pathos  which 
lies  in  the  Apostle's  appeal  on  behalf  of  their  weaker 
brethren  to  the  same  Churches  of  Rome  and  Corinth,  "  For  if 
because  of  meat  thy  brother  is  grieved,  thou  walkest  no 
longer  in  love.  Destroy  not  with  thy  meat  him  for  whom 
Christ  died  "  (Rom.  xiv.  15)  ;  or  again,  "  For  through  thy 
knowledge  he  that  is  weak  perisheth,  thy  brother  for  whose 
sake  Christ  died"  (i  Cor.  viii.  11).  How  could  St.  Paul 
enforce  more  strongly  the  value  of  the  individual  soul,  or 
how  could  he  bind  more  closely  the  tie  of  Christian  brother- 
hood than  by  the  reminder  that  weak  and  strong  alike  had 
been  purchased  by  the  same  price  and  redeemed  by  the 
same  deliverance  ?  ^  It  would  seem,  indeed,  that  upon  every 
class  of  sin — and  sins  were  rife  in  a  city  like  Corinth — St. 
Paul  brought  to  bear  the  highest  Christian  principles.  He 
speaks,  e.g.,  of  those  who  had  been  fornicators,  idolaters, 
adulterers,  effeminate,  thieves,  covetous,  drunkards,  ex- 
tortioners, "  And  such,"  he  adds,  "  were  some  of  you  ;  but  ye 
were  washed,  but  ye  were  sanctified,  but  ye  were  justified,  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  in  the  Spirit  of  our 
God  "  (i  Cor.  vi.  9).  In  such  words  we  have  again  the 
mention  of  the  two  principles,  as  Von  Dobschiitz  calls  them, 
to  which  the  Apostle  in  an  earlier  part  of  the  letter  had 
appealed  as  efficacious  for  the  prevention  of  sensual  sin,  the 
power  of  Christ,  and  the  freedom  which  Christ  conferred,  the 
inner  freedom  which  delivered  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death.^ 

But  it  is  noticeable  that  in  this  list  of  vices  to  which 
St.  Paul  refers  in  i  Cor.  vi.  10  he  names  not  only  sensual 
sins,  but   also,   with    them,  as   equally   excluding   from  the 

^  In  his  The  Difference  Christ  has  Made,  p.  13  (in  the  series 
"What  is  Christianity"),  the  Rev.  G.  Jackson  admirably  enforces  the 
historical  importance  of  this  single  fundamental  Christian  truth,  the 
belief  in  the  importance  of  the  individual  soul  before  God. 

*  Dobschutz,  U.S.  p.  45. 


462     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

kingdom  of  God,  the  sins  of  extortion  and  covetousness. 
Evidently  in  the  business  and  commercial  pursuits  which 
played  such  a  prominent  part  in  their  lives  the  Corinthians 
were  lacking  in  the  elementary  spirit  of  Christian  brother- 
hood, and  were  in  danger  of  failing  to  rise  above  the  level 
of  heathen  practice  around  them.  We  cannot  suppose  that 
St.  Paul  is  referring  to  some  single  isolated  case  when 
he  asks,  "  Dare  any  of  you,  having  a  matter  against  his 
neighbour,  go  to  law  before  the  unrighteous  ?  "  (i  Cor.  vi.  i). 
The  words  of  warning  rather  suggest  that  the  danger  was 
widespread,  and,  in  making  these  appeals  to  heathen  law 
courts,  these  Christians  were  forgetting  the  spirit  of  their 
Master  and  Judge  in  heaven,  to  which  St.  Paul  would  recall 
them.  Christianity  not  only  forbade  dishonesty  in  business, 
it  also  forbade  a  stiff  and  unbending  insistence  upon  one's 
own  rights  if  the  brotherhood  of  the  faith  was  to  be  a 
reality  and   not  merely  a  name. 

It  was  their  failure  to  realise  this  sense  of  brotherhood 
as  the  starting-point,  as  the  measure,  and  the  test  of  every 
action,  which  opened  out  the  way  even  in  Christian  circles  for 
the  promotion  of  every  kind  of  selfish  and  malicious  interest. 
But  the  fact  that  these  Corinthian  Christians  engaged 
in  lawsuits  one  with  another  seems  in  itself  to  suggest 
that  they  were  by  no  means  converts  made  from  the  lowest 
classes.  In  fact,  this  is  only  one  of  many  indications  that 
there  were  many  well-to-do,  if  not  wealthy,  members  in 
some  at  least  of  the  Churches  with  which  St.  Paul  was 
concerned.  In  the  world  of  Christian  service  it  has  been 
well  and  truly  said  that  St.  Paul  had  a  place  for  the  rich, 
and  that  it  was  not  a  part  of  his  purpose  to  reproach  the 
wealthy  because  they  were  wealthy,  or  to  represent  poverty 
as  a  synonym  for  holiness.^  Nor  was  the  Apostle  a 
preacher  of  what  has  been  called  the  modern  conception 
that  men,  in  proportion  as  they  enjoy  better  social  sur- 
'  Peabody,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question,  p.  196.     . 


ST.   PAUL  AND   SOCIAL  LIFE  463 

foundings,  are  found  to  be  more  receptive  of  morality  and 
belief  A  man  might  give  all  his  goods  to  feed  the  poor, 
but  such  a  sacrifice  might  bring  him  no  whit  nearer  to 
the   love  of  Christ  or  to  the  purity  of  God.^ 

But  as  no  one  was  less  selfish  than  St.  Paul,  so  no  one 
encouraged  more  solicitously  to  every  opportunity  of  un- 
selfishness in  others.  He  bids  the  Corinthians  lay  by  in 
store  week  by  week  as  God  had  prospered  them  ;  he  re- 
minds them  that  the  love  of  God  was  the  reward  of  the 
cheerful  giver,  and  in  such  statements  we  have  the  Magna 
Charta  of  free  charity.^  He  accepts  gifts  on  occasion  from 
the  Church  at  Philippi,  and  speaks  of  their  liberality  as 
a  sacrifice  well  pleasing  to  God  ;  he  bids  those  who  have 
houses  to  eat  and  to  drink  in  not  to  shame  the  poor  by 
a  display  of  their  abundance  of  food.  How  painfully  the 
Apostle  felt  any  remissness  on  the  part  of  the  Church  to 
minister  to  the  needs  of  others  we  can  see  in  the  contrast 
which  he  draws  between  the  Corinthian  slackness  and  the 
Macedonian  zeal  for  the  collection  on  behalf  of  the  poor 
saints  in  Jerusalem.  Nor  can  we  fail  to  notice  how  highly 
St.  Paul  commends  those  who  were  willing  to  devote  their 
goods  as  well  as  their  time  to  the  service  of  the  Church. 
Take,  e.g.^  the  case  of  Stephanas.  Not  only  Stephanas, 
but  his  household,  had  given  themselves  to  the  service  of 
the  Church  (i  Cor.  xvi.  15-18).  Possibly  Fortunatus  and 
Achaicus  were  his  household  slaves ;  at  all  events  they 
journeyed  with  Stephanas  to  St.  Paul  at  Ephesus.  We 
are  not  told  it  in  so  many  words,  but  it  is  quite  probable 
that  Stephanas  bore  the  cost  of  the  journey  at  his  own 
expense,  just  as  some  Athenian  citizen  was  wont  to  bear 
some  burden  in  the  service  of  the  State  from  his  own 
private   purse.^      But  however  this  may  have  been,  it  is  at 

^  Cf.  Rogge,  Der  irdische  Besitz  im  N.T.,  p.  113  (1897). 

^  Uhlhorn,  p.  85,  below. 

3  Dobschiitz,  Die  urchristlichen  Gemeinden,  p.  48. 


464    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

least  evident  that  Stephanas  and  his  household  had  "  set 
themselves "  to  minister  unto  the  saints,  the  expression 
"  set  themselves "  indicating  that  it  was  in  their  power  to 
arrange  their  time  or  to  dispose  of  their  substance  as  they 
would.  And  it  is  evident  how  keenly  St.  Paul  appreciates 
this  service,  and  how  high  is  the  reward  which  he  would 
bestow  upon  it. 

But  whilst  there  is  no  trace  in  the  New  Testament  that 
St.  Paul  regarded  wealth  as  sinful,^  the  Apostle  knew  full 
well  the  dangers  which  wealth  brings  with  it,  the  responsi- 
bilities which  must  attach  to  it,  the  uncertainty  of  its  tenure. 
The  desire  to  be  rich  was  in  itself  a  temptation  ;  the  love  of 
money  was  a  root  of  all  kinds  of  evil.  Men  reached  eagerly 
after  money  in  the  hope  of  securing  it  rather  than  after  the 
hope  in  God,  in  whom  was  the  life  which  was  life  indeed 
(i  Tim.  vi.  19).  And  when  the  Apostle  speaks  to  the 
Colossians  of  the  covetousness  which  is  idolatry  (Col.  iii.  5), 
we  are  reminded  of  our  Lord's  own  teaching  as  to  the  fatal 
danger  of  attempting  a  divided  service  between  God  and 
Mammon.^  In  the  possession  of  the  true  life  St.  Paul  would 
teach  us  that  the  Christian  is  also  in  the  possession  of  the 
true  wealth  :  "  Charge  them  that  are  rich  in  this  present 
world  .  .  .  that  they  do  good,  that  they  be  rich  in  good 
works,  that  they  be  ready  to  distribute,  willing  to  communi- 
cate "  (i  Tim.  vi.  17).  The  last  phrase,  "  willing  to  com- 
municate," may  very  possibly  mean,  "  ready  to  sympathise," 
as  the  R.V.  has  it  in  the  margin  ;  and,  if  so,  St.  Paul's  charge 
would  teach  us  that  our  duty  is  not  fulfilled  when  our  alms 
are  given  or  our  cheque  is  written,  but  that  something  more 
is  needed,  the  gift  of  sympathy,  which  would  regard  suffering 
not  as  something  altogether  external  to  ourselves  in  our  own 
health  and  strength,  but  as  if  we  too  were  feeling  its  burden 

'  Cf.,  Uhlhorn,  Christian  Charity  in  the  Ancient  Church,  p.  82, 
E.T. 
^  Rogge,  U.S.  p.  106. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   SOCIAL   LIFE  465 

and  its  pain.  Even  the  man  who  had  made  it  a  habit  to 
steal  might  learn  to  enjoy  the  possession  of  this  true  wealth, 
not  in  defrauding  others  of  what  was  theirs,  but  in  imparting 
to  them  of  what  was  his  own  (Eph.  iv.  28).  And  so  in  his 
latest,  as  in  his  earliest.  Epistles  St.  Paul  condemns  idleness, 
and  he  makes  it  his  glory  and  his  boast  that  he  himself  had 
worked  with  his  own  hands,  that  he  might  not  be  chargeable 
to  any.^ 

"  Good  men  spend  and  are  spent,"  said  Seneca  ;  but  his 
words  failed  to  gain  much  response  in  a  selfish  and  sensual 
age.  The  philosopher  himself  amassed  a  fortune  of  enormous 
wealth.  But  when  St.  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians,  "  I 
will  most  gladly  spend,  and  be  spent  to  the  last  farthing  for 
your  souls  " — for  such  is  the  force  of  the  verb  which  is  used 
here  and  here  only  in  biblical  Greek  (2  Cor.  xii.  15),  his 
words  evoked  a  wide  and  an  ever-widening  response,  because 
they  came  from  the  lips  of  one  who  had  learnt  the  secret  of 
life,  who  knew  both  how  to  be  filled  and  how  to  be  hungry, 
both  how  to  abound  and  how  to  be  in  want,  and  who  could 
impart  his  secret  without  money  and  without  price  to  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  In  his  self-abasement  and 
poverty  St.  Paul  could  write  to  Timothy  of  the  God  "  who 
giveth  us,"  not,  who  will  give,  as  of  some  future  or  far-off 
possession,  "  all   things   richly  to  enjoy." 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer  to  the  last  chapter 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  in  connection  with  the  founding 
of  the  Church  in  the  heart  of  the  empire.  Many  of  us  are 
tempted  to  read  this  chapter  as  if  it  was  a  mere  list  of 
names.  But  in  the  early  days  of  the  Church's  life  there 
were  those  who  were  keenly  alive  to  the  importance  of  this 
close  of  the  Epistle.  For  it  testifies  to  the  wide  affection 
of  the  Apostle,  to  his  respect  for  Christian  women,  and  to 
the  glory  which  had  been  bestowed   upon   Christian  woman- 

^  Uhlhorn,  u.s.  p.  82.     See,  further,  Bacon,  Story  of  St.  Paul,  p.  241 
(1905). 

30 


466     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

hood  ;  it  shows  how  St.  Paul  could  see  in  the  unselfish  love 
which  marked  each  Christian  family  a  reflection  of  the  love 
with  which  Christ  had  loved  the  Church,  and  it  gives  us  a 
proof  that  St.  Paul  was  never  ashamed  to  rank  amongst  his 
friends  those  who  filled  a  comparatively  humble  sphere  in 
social  life.  And  so  St.  Chrysostom  can  tell  us  that,  although 
many  were  wont  to  hurry  over  this  part  of  the  Epistle,  he 
himself  takes  a  very  different  view  of  the  value  of  its 
contents.  "  For  it  is  possible,"  he  adds,  "  even  from  bare 
names  to  find  a  great  treasure.  And  therefore,"  he  adds, 
"  though  there  is  nobody  that  listens  to  it,  let  us  do  our 
part,  and  show  that  there  is  nothing  superfluous,  nothing 
added  at  random  in  the  Scriptures." 

A  careful  study  of  the  names  and  of  the  considerateness 
of  the  Apostle  in  the  praise  which  he  bestows  upon  each 
enables  us  to  test  St.  Chrysostom's  declaration.  St.  Paul, 
for  example,  has  sometimes  been  accused  of  a  want  of  due 
respect  towards  women.  This  last  chapter  of  his  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  is  sufficient  in  itself  to  refute  such  a  charge. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end,  the  writer  chooses  with  the 
most  apt  consideration  the  title  and  the  merit  which  belongs 
to  each  member  of  the  household  of  God,  and  recognises 
the  special  work  which  a  woman,  and  often  only  a  woman, 
can  do  in  the  Church,  until  we  are  led  to  exclaim,  in  the 
further  words  of  St.  Chrysostom,  "  An  honour  we  have  in 
that  there  can  be  such  women  amongst  us  ;  but  we  are  put 
to  shame  in  that  we  men  are  left  so  far  behind  them." 
Even  in  other  passages  of  his  Epistles,  in  which  it  may 
be  urged  that  the  Apostle  speaks  more  severely,  he  does  so 
because  he  has  known  what  Christian  womanhood  could  be, 
and  what  it  ought  to  be  ;  whilst  his  severity  is  tempered  by 
the  bright  and  happy  picture  of  the  Christian  matron  and 
the  Christian  home.  Nor  can  we  forget  that  our  Lord 
himself  had  bidden  His  disciples  to  expect  the  multiplication 
of  the  dearest  ties  of  home  in  a  spiritual  sense.     And  such 


ST.   PAUL   AND   SOCIAL   LIFE  467 

a  recollection  connects  itself  with  one  striking  expression 
of  St.  Paul  in  the  chapter  before  us,  "  Salute  Rufus,  chosen 
in  the  Lord,  and  his  mother  and  mine."  Evidently  the 
Apostle  had  received  such  Christian  kindness  from  the 
mother  of  Rufus  that  he  regarded  her  as  related  to  himself 
by  the  same  endearing  tie.  The  words,  indeed,  have  been 
connected  with  the  word  which  speaks  of  a  love  more  sacred 
still,  "  Woman,  behold  thy  Son.  .  .  .  Behold  thy  mother." 
And  if,  as  is  quite  possible,  the  thought  of  Rufus  had  re- 
minded St.  Paul  of  the  way  of  the  Cross,  it  may  well  be 
that  his  regard  would  find  in  the  dying  charge  of  Jesus  its 
most  fitting,  its  most  delicate  expression. 

But  as  in  dealing  with  the  question  of  slavery  there  was 
nothing  revolutionary  in  the  Apostle's  teaching,  and  his  aim 
was  to  inspire  a  new  spirit  into  the  relationships  of  master 
and  servant,  so,  too,  in  dealing  with  the  family,  and  with 
the  position  of  womanhood,  there  were  no  doubt  many 
details  which  might  press  for  a  solution  ;  but  the  Apostle 
sought  to  enrich  and  to  sanctify  the  closest  human  tie  by 
the  spirit  which  breathed  in  the  Ephesian  and  Colossian 
Epistles  alike,^  and  by  that  divine  union  "  in  Christ  "  which 
was  conferred  upon  all  "  whose  loves  in  higher  love  endure." 

As  we  pass  beyond  the  Christian  Church  we  note  that, 
contemporaneously  with  its  teaching  and  its  progress,  great 
ideas  were  working  in  other  religions,  ideas  which  showed 
that  men  far  and  wide  were  oppressed  with  the  sense  of 
mysteries  which  they  could  not  fathom  and  by  the  weight 
of  burdens  which  they  could  not  sustain.  The  sense  of 
guilt,  the  hope  of  penetrating  the  unseen,  the  craving  for 
communion  with  the  divine,  and  the  desire  for  a  higher 
morality,  the  tie  of  brotherhood  resulting  from  a  common 
worship  and  the  exercise  of  a  common  life — all  these  were 
at  work.      It  has,  therefore,  been  often  pointed  out  that  the 

1  In  this  connection  Bousset's  remarks  are  of  value  (Der  A^ostel 
Faulus,  p.  9  [1904]). 


468     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

success  of  the  religion  of  Mithra,  at  all  events  in  the  West, 
was  undoubtedly  due  to  the  spirit  of  fraternity  and  charity 
which  was  so  marked  in  his  guilds  and  in  his  sacraments.^ 
In  the  sacramental  mysteries  not  only  did  the  lonely  and 
the  disconsolate  find  strength  and  sympathy,  but  high  and 
low,  rich  and  poor,  were  united  by  a  common  bond. 

Dr.  Harnack,  indeed,  assures  us  that  if  Christianity  had 
not  contained  sacraments,  men  would  have  invented  them, 
and  that,  in  fact,  no  religion  could  possibly  have  prospered 
without  them. 

But  when  a  likeness  is  drawn  between  the  initiation  into 
the  pagan  mysteries  and  into  a  common  brotherhood  of 
worship  and  ritual  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Christian 
sacrament  of  Holy  Baptism  on  the  other,  let  us  remember 
that  the  pagan  and  the  Christian  conception  of  life  were  two 
very  different  things.  For  the  most  part  the  purifications 
and  lustral  washings  of  the  pagan  world  were  due  to 
superstitious  •■  fear  and  dread  ;  and  even  when  they  were 
used  to  fit  men  for  taking  part  in  some  sacrifice  or 
celebration  of  the  mysteries,  they  have  been  truly  described 
as  resembling  the  ceremonial  cleansings  of  the  Levitical  law 
much  more  than  anything  found  in  the  Christian  Church.^ 
It  seems  a  strange  confession  of  inability  to  grasp  the 
intense  moral  and  spiritual  power  of  the  Christian  life  to 
liken  such  expressions  as  "  to  be  in  Christ,"  which  are  so 
common  in  St.  Paul's  writings,  with  the  raving  Bacchantes 
under  the  influence  of  their  god,  or  with  the  orgiastic 
enthusiasm  of  half-barbaric  religions.^ 

No  doubt  the  pagan  mysteries,  with  their  partaking  of  a 
common  meal  by  the  initiated,  and  with  their  festivals,  which 
aimed  at  communion  with  the  deity,  helped   to  create  not 

'  See,  e.^.,  amongst  recent  writers,  S.  Dill,  Roman  Society  from 
Nero  to  M.  Aurelius,  p.  612. 

'  Cheetham,  The  Mysteries,  Pagan  and  Christian,  p.  10  (1903). 

*  Von  Dobschiitz,  Studien  und  Kritiken,  i.  (1905),  p.  38,  and  his 
protest. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   SOCIAL   LIFE  469 

only  a  sense  of  unity,  but  a  sense  of  brotherhood  so  strong 
as  often  to  transcend  all  the  barriers  of  national  and  social 
life.  But  these  common  instincts  and  cravings  of  humanity 
were  not  crushed,  but  ennobled  in  the  Christian  Church  ;  and 
men  who  have  done  their  best  to  minimise  the  historical 
facts  connected  with  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist  are 
constrained  to  bear  witness  to  the  social  and  moral  power 
of  "  the  breaking  of  the  bread  "  in  the  infant  life  of  the 
Christian  community.^ 

But  if  we  are  no  longer  seriously  asked  to  believe  that 
St.  Paul  paid  a  visit  to  Eleusis,  we  are  reminded  that  in  his 
missionary  journeys  he  had  come  into  close  contact  with 
the  Hellenistic  world,  and  that  he  may  thus  have  learnt  to 
know  the  meaning  of  the  religious  mysteries  which  it 
enjoyed.  Had  St.  Paul  then  gained  the  unique  satisfaction 
of  knowing  all  about  the  m}^steries  without  being  initiated  ? 
or  even  if  he  had  gained  this  knowledge,  are  we  to  suppose 
that  the  Apostle  would  care  to  utilise  what  he  knew  of  these 
mysteries  in  his  teaching  about  the  Sacraments  of  the 
Christian  Church  ?  No  doubt,  in  a  great  international  centre 
like  Cornith,  pagan  clubs  and  associations  of  every  kind 
grew  and  multiplied  ;  but  St.  Paul's  attitude  towards  the 
pagan  feasts  at  Corinth,  so  far  as  we  know  it,  cannot  be 
said  to  be  very  sympathetic  (i  Cor.  x.  20-1),  and  he  would 
scarcely  have  adopted  points  of  ritual  from  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries  in  the  wholesale  manner  which  has  sometimes 
been  alleged. 

But  even  if  we  grant  the  Apostle  both  knowledge  and 
inclination,  we  cannot  suppose  that  he  possessed  the  power 
thus  to  thrust  his  own  sacramental  views  upon  Jews  and 
Gentiles  alike  in  a  Church  which  was  by  no  means  unanimous 
in  the  acceptance  of  his  authority  or  in  obedience  to  his 
commands. 

But  if  there  is  good  ground  for  believing  that  the  two 
'  Pfleiderer,  Gifford  Lectures,  ii.  85,  122,  126,  E.T. 


470    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

great  Sacraments  may  be  traced  to  Jewish  sources,  why 
should  we  seek  to  exaggerate  the  pagan  influence  which  on 
the  showing  of  those  who  are  most  in  sympathy  with  it  is 
so  precarious  and  uncertain  ?  Thus  Dr.  Percy  Gardner 
writes,  with  reference  to  these  pagan  religions,  that  it  must 
be  allowed  that  our  objective  knowledge  of  them  is  not  good, 
and  that  it  constantly  breaks  down  when  one  tries  to  build 
upon  it.^  But  if  we  believe  in  the  act  of  "  the  breaking  of 
the  bread  "  at  all,  as  it  is  twice  mentioned  in  the  Acts,  it  is 
surely  not  difficult  to  believe  that  St.  Paul  would  impress  by 
such  an  act  the  lesson  of  Christian  unity,  and  that  that  unity 
could  only  be  sustained  in  and  through  Him  apart  from 
whom   Christians   could   do   nothing. 

The  notion  of  connecting  Christianity  with  every  pagan 
cult  has  become  so  increasingly  popular  that  it  is  difficult 
to  limit  the  lengths  to  which  it  may  carry  us.  We  are 
asked,  e.g.,  by  Dr.  H.  Holtzmann  to  believe  that  the  influence 
of  at  least  one  Eastern  religion — the  religion  of  Mithra — is 
traceable  upon  the  Sacraments  of  the  New  Testament,  be- 
cause it  was  known  not  only  in  St.  Paul's  home  at  Tarsus, 
but  because  the  Romans  may  have  learnt  it  in  their  battles 
with  the  Cilician  pirates.^  Truly  a  likely  source  for  the 
derivation  of  the  sacramental  teaching  of  the  Church  of 
Christ !  To  show  the  extraordinary  bias  of  Holtzmann's 
mind  in  favour  of  this  peculiar  theory,  he  treats  us  to  an 
examination  of  the  alleged  influence  of  Essenism  and  its 
common  meals  upon  the  Christian  Sacraments,  an  influence 
which  in  the  case  before  us  he  totally  rejects  in  his  anxiety 
to  make  room  for  his  own  assumptions.^  But,  further,  the 
words  mentioned  by  Dr.  Holtzmann  *  as  a  serious  argument 
in  proof  of  the  close  connection  between  St.  Paul's  teaching 

'  A  Historic  View  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  179  (1904). 

*  Archiv  fiir  Religionswissenschaft,  Heft  i.  p.  66  (1904). 
'  U.S.  pp.  60-1. 

*  U.S.  p.  64. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   SOCIAL  LIFE  471 

and  that  of  the  pagan  mysteries  are  of  the  most  general  kind, 
and  there  is  no  difficulty  in  supposing  that  the  Apostle 
would  know  something  of  the  phraseology  current  in  the 
religious  and  social  world  around  him.  The  word  "  perfect," 
e.g.,  which  no  doubt  means  "  initiated  "  in  its  classical  usage, 
may  be  an  illustration  of  this  ;  but  at  the  same  time  we 
must  remember  that  the  same  word  occurs  in  the  LXX.,  in 
Philo,  and  that  it  is  used  in  the  most  Jewish  document  of 
the  New  Testament,  the  Epistle  of  St.  James,  more  frequently 
than  in  any  other  New  Testament  book. 

Dr.  Percy  Gardner  asks  us  to  believe  that  Christianity 
takes  up,  as  it  were,  and  sanctifies  the  thoughts  and  influences 
which  were  at  work  in  paganism,  and  to  this  request  we 
very  cordially  respond.^  The  pity  is  that  so  much  time 
should  be  spent  in  tracing  out  an  origin  for  the  Christian 
Sacraments  which  is  quite  at  variance  with  the  source  to 
which  the  New  Testament  refers  them.  No  doubt  we  may 
insist  upon  the  social  power  of  the  Christian  Sacraments  ; 
but  we  must  never  forget  that  this  social  and  universal 
power  is  derived  not  from  the  real  or  supposed  contact  of 
Christianity  with  any  other  system  of  religion  or  philosophy,^ 
but  that  it  is  seen  and  felt  because  it  is  the  gift  of  Him 
with  whom  every  Christian  is  united  in  baptism,  and  by 
whom  every  Christian  is  fed  and  sustained  in  the  Holy 
Communion. 

One  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  modern  archaeology  has 
been  the  revelation  of  the  wide  spread  of  Mithra  worship 
throughout  the  Roman  empire.  How  this  religion  passed 
from  the  East  to  the  West  we  cannot  say.  It  would  seem 
that   some   seventy   years   B.C.    it    may   have    made  its   first 

'  U.S.  pp.  185,  230. 

^  See,  e.g.,  Bacon,  Siory  of  St.  Paul,  p.  260  (1905)  :  "  Cosmopolitan- 
ism is  the  last  thing  Paul  would  learn  from  his  Jewish  antecedents  ;  it 
was  strange  doctrine  even  to  the  elder  Apostles,  and  yet  it  was  involved 
in  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  Paul  has  the  merit  of  infusing  with  imperishable 
life  what  in  Stoicism  was  but  a  barren  ideal." 


472    TESTIMONY  OF  ST.   PAUL  TO  CHRIST 

appearance,  but  probably  during  the  reign  of  Tiberius  it 
began  to  establish  its  hold  upon  the  empire  by  the  missionary 
efforts,  as  we  may  call  them,  of  soldiers,  merchants,  and 
slaves.  Gradually  it  worked  its  way,  as  the  religion  of  the 
poor  and  despised,  to  that  of  the  imperial  Court  and  of 
the  upper  classes  of  society,  and  one  place  after  another 
familiar  to  us  by  name  bears  its  unmistakable  witness  to 
the  spread  of  this  strange  cult.  We  may  trace  it  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube  to  the  great  military  outposts 
of  Chester  and  York.^  What  was  the  exact  secret  of  its 
influence  who  shall  say  ?  But  it  appealed  undoubtedly  to  the 
various  yearnings  which  were  affecting  men's  hearts  and 
minds,  and  its  social  and  moral  triumph  was  great ;  it 
appealed  to  all  classes,  and  it  made  that  appeal  in  the 
West  at  a  time  when  a  great  political  unity  had  already 
been  achieved.  For  a  while  it  waxed  strong,  and  beyond 
doubt  it  presented  points  of  likeness  which  might  easily  be 
exaggerated  with  the  sacramental  system  of  the  Christian 
faith  ;  and  so  it  has  been  truly  remarked  of  its  sacred 
ablutions  and  its  feast  in  honour  of  its  God  that  such 
festivals  and  lustrations  easily  lent  themselves  to  a  com- 
petition with   Baptism  and  the  Holy  Communion.^ 

But  these  guilds  and  colleges  of  the  votaries  of  Mithra, 
although  they  spread  far  and  wide  throughout  the  great 
Roman  empire,  had  their  day,  and  they  ceased  to  be,  in 
spite  of  'the  desperate  efforts  which  were  made  to  restore 
and  revive  them.  There  must,  then,  as  Von  Dobschiitz 
frankly  declares,  have  been  something  in  Christianity  which 
gave  it  a  victory  in  its  conflict  with  the  ecstatic  and  magical 
cults  by  which  it  was  surrounded  ;  otherwise  it  would  have 
gone  under  with  them,  if  it  had  not  possessed  a  power 
which  was  stronger  and  more  enduring  than  they,  and 
that  power  was  the  Gospel,  that  power  was  the  Person  of 

'  S.  Dill,  U.S.  pp.  594, 596 ;  Bigg,  The  Church's  Task,  etc.,  p.  48  (1905). 
^  Art.  "Mithras,"  Diet,  of  Christian  Biog.,  iii.  926. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   SOCIAL   LIFE  473 

the  living  Christ.^  The  archseological  testimony  which 
witnesses  so  clearly  and  so  increasingly  to  the  existence 
of  the  cult  of  Mithra  witnesses  none  the  less  clearly  to  the 
fact  that  the  spread  and  popularity  of  that  religion  could 
not  prevent  it  from  sharing  the  fate  of  the  numerous  other 
religions  which  in  the  Roman  empire  contended  with  it 
for  popular  favour  and  renown.  But  to-day,  over  an  empire 
greater  than  that  of  Rome,  the  Christian  Sacraments  unite 
Christians  in  a  great  spiritual  society,  which  century  after 
century  has  made  its  conquests  in  East  and  West  alike,  which 
aims  at  a  world-wide  dominion,  and  claims  to  possess  the 
power  of  an  endless  life.  And  why  ?  because  it  is  founded 
not  upon  theories,  but  upon  facts  ;  and  those  facts  are  the 
life  and  death  and  resurrection  of  a  divine  Person,  in 
whom  Christians  become  members  one  of  another,  because 
they  are  the  members  of  a  Church  which  is  the  Body  of 
Christ,  of  a  divine  Person  whose  word  is  pledged  that 
against  His  Church  no  powers  seen  or  unseen  can  prevail. 

^  Probleme  des  apost.  Zeitalters,  p.  128.  The  words  are  well 
worth  quoting  in  full,  "  Es  muss  etwas  in  dem  Christentum  gewesen  sein, 
was  anders  war  als  jene  Religiositat,  eine  Kraft,  die  es  uber  all  jene 
Gebilde  erhob.  Das  ist  das  Evangelium,  und  der  darin  zusammen- 
gefasste  Eindruck  der  Person  Jesu  Christi.  Dass  man  desse"  Bedeutung 
fiir  die  ganze  Entwicklung  unterschatzt,  darin  sehe  ich  den  Hauptfehler 
dieser  *  religionsgeschichtlichen  '  Betrachtungsweise." 


LECTURE   XXIII 

ST.    PAUL    AND    MISSIONARY    WORK 

IN  a  former  lecture  we  dwelt  for  a  short  time  upon  the 
self-devotion  which  characterised  St.  Paul's  career.  It 
is  this  feature  in  his  character  which  has  impressed  most 
strongly  the  recent  as  well  as  the  earlier  students  of  his 
life,  and  we  find  this  recognition  in  quarters  where  it  is 
very  welcome. 

Thus  Professor  Bousset,  in  his  little  pamphlet  of  last  year 
on  the  Apostle,  speaks  of  this  offering  up  of  himself  as  the 
highest  thing  in  St.  Paul  ;  and  he  adds  that  this  offering 
which  St.  Paul  made  was  by  no  means  the  offering  of  a  weak 
will,  it  was  rather  the  offering  of  a  strong  nature  and  of  a 
masterly  will  which  was  thus  presented  in  sacrifice  to  its  God 
and  Saviour.  But  with  this  recognition  of  the  Apostle's 
entire  self-devotion  there  is  also  the  recognition  of  his 
practical  and  tactful  energy.^ 

In  our  own  country  Professor  Ramsay  and  Dr.  Lock  have 
helped  us  to  understand  this  combination  in  St.  Paul  of 
heroic  self-sacrifice  and  of  methodical  and  resourceful  working, 
more  especially  in  the  field  of  missionary  labour.  And  in 
Germany  writers  so  far  removed  from  one  another  in  many 
respects  as  Dr.  Zahn  and  Dr.  Clemen  have  been  loud  in 
their    praise    of    the     methods     of    St.     Paul's     missionary 

'  Bousset,  Z?^r  A^ostel  Paulus,  pp.  15-16(1904);  Weinel,  P^a/«i- 
Der  Mensch  und  sein  Werk,  pp.  276-7  (1904)  ;  Wernle,  Was  haben 
wir  heute  an  Paulus  ?  pp.  17,  29  (1904). 

474 


ST.   PAUL  AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       475 

endeavours.  If  it  was  ever  given  to  a  man  "  to  think 
imperially "  it  was  so  in  the  best  and  highest  sense  to  St. 
Paul.  Possibly  Dr.  Clemen  is  right  when  he  thinks  that 
from  the  earliest  days  of  the  Apostle's  first  missionary 
journey,  from  his  encounter  with  Sergius  Paulus,  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Roman  world,  he  was  encouraged  to  hope 
that  the  heart  of  the  empire  might  be  won  for  Christ.  At 
all  events,  we  know  how  for  years  St.  Paul's  fervent  desire 
was  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Rome,  and  in  his  visiting 
Spain,  "  the  chief  centre  of  Roman  civilisation  in  the  West,"  ^ 
we  see  the  further  working  out  of  his  resolve  that,  if  possible, 
the  Christian  religion  should  become  the  religion  of  the 
empire.  And  we  can  trace  how  the  eager  wish  of  the  great 
Apostle  influenced  the  record  of  his  friend  and  companion 
St.  Luke,  and  led  him  to  emphasise  the  successive  steps  by 
which  the  Gospel  travelled  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome.  We 
may  readily  grant  that  this  was  one  of  the  chief,  if  not  the 
chief  motive  of  St.  Luke  as  an  historian,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
see  why  such  a  recognition  of  his  purpose  should  in  the 
slightest  degree  detract  from  the  value  or  the  truthfulness 
of  his  narrative. 

But  whilst  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  thus  bears  witness  to 
St.  Paul's  great  purpose  and  its  accomplishment,  it  also 
enables  us  to  trace  in  some  detail  the  methods  of  his  working 
and  their  value  and  effect.  In  the  first  place  we  may  be 
enabled  to  distinguish  in  the  Acts  between  what  have  been 
well  called  the  two  types  of  mission — the  diffused  and  the 
concentrated  mission.^  Each  has  its  place  in  the  Church, 
each  has  its  place  in  the  history  of  St.  Luke.  In  the  case  of 
St.  Paul  it  might  perhaps  at  first  sight  look  as  if  the  diffused 
type  of  mission  was  all  that  the  Apostle  recognised  and 
cared  for,  that  his  own  aim  was  active   aggression  and  the 

1  Ramsay,  Si.  Paul,  p.  255,  and  Art.  "  Roads  and  Travel,"  Hastings' 
B.D.,  V.  i-j-j. 
'  Church  Quarterly  Review,  Ivi.  174. 


476    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

making  of  converts  far  and  wide.  But  none  the  less,  St.  Paul 
had  learnt  and  appreciated  the  value  of  concentration.  His 
work  shows  how  often  he  was  content  to  build  up  some 
centre  of  Christian  life,  from  which  the  light  and  the  joy 
of  the  Gospel  might  radiate  to  the  neighbouring  country  ; 
and  thus  expansion  and  concentration  went  hand  in  hand. 
The  Apostle's  work  spread  through  the  great  Roman  province 
of  Asia,  but  it  had  its  definite  centre,  its  headquarters  in 
the  capita]  ;  and  from  Ephesus  the  missionaries  of  the  Gospel 
carried  their  message,  as  we  have  seen,  and  founded  Churches. 
And  Ephesus  was  chosen  by  St.  Paul  because,  as  we  have 
already  noted,  in  accordance  with  his  rule  of  choice,  Ephesus 
was  one  of  the  great  centres  of  the  busy  commercial  life  of 
the  empire.  How  often  missionary  work  has  failed  of  its 
success  because  St.  Paul's  careful  methods  have  been  for- 
gotten !  It  has  been  said  that  since  the  days  of  St.  Paul  no 
greater  or  more  fascinating  personality  has  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  heathen  than  that  of  St.  Francis  Xavier. 
But  it  is  no  harsh  criticism  that  sees  in  his  methods  the 
crucial  example  of  total  failure  of  concentration,  of  belief  in 
quantity  rather  than  quality,  of  counting  the  number  of 
baptized,  not  of  seeking  to  build  up  his  neophytes  in  the 
faith  and  practice  of  the  Gospel. 

And  here  we  may  note  another  characteristic  of  St.  Paul's 
missionary  writing.  As  Dr.  Zahn,  no  less  than  Dr.  Lock, 
has  so  well  pointed  out,  one  of  the  most  important  means  of 
St.  Paul's  success  was  the  trust  which  he  placed  in  his  fellow 
workers,  and  his  discriminating  knowledge  in  the  due  assign- 
ment of  their  work.^  To  say  nothing  of  the  more  familiar 
names,  such  as  those  of  Timothy  or  Titus,  how  much  we 
may  learn  from  the  account,  brief  as  it  is,  of  two  such  men 
as  Epaphras  and  Epaphroditus  !  Both  were  content  to  visit 
St.   Paul  when   he  lay  bound  as  a  prisoner  in   Rome.      In 

'  Zahn,  Skizzen  aus  dem  Leben  der  alien  Ktrche,  p.   145  ;  Lock, 
St.  Paul  the  Master -Builder,  p.  145. 


ST.   PAUL  AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       477 

Epaphras  we  may  see  not  only  the  founder  of  the  Church 
at  Colosse,  but  it  may  well  be  the  Evangelist  of  the  neigh- 
bouring towns,  and  we  know  how  dear  Epaphroditus  was  to 
the  Church  at  Philippi  and  to  St.  Paul.  What  description 
could  reveal  more  clearly  the  worth  of  Epaphroditus  and 
the  place  which  he  had  gained  in  the  affections  of  St.  Paul 
than  the  simple  description,  in  the  Apostle's  own  words,  in 
which  he  speaks  of  him  as  "  my  brother,  and  fellow-worker, 
and  fellow-soldier  "  (Phil.  ii.  25)  ;  in  other  words,  of  one  united 
to  him  by  the  enduring  bonds  of  Christian  affection,  of 
common  work  and  common  danger.^ 

There  is,  of  course,  a  further  sense  in  which  the  word 
"  concentrated  "  may  be  used  of  St.  Paul's  missionary  work, 
although,  as  we  have  said,  concentration  with  St.  Paul  was 
the  first  and  best  step  towards  diffusion.  Wherever  he 
found  a  Jewish  synagogue  he  made  that  the  starting-point 
for  his  preaching,  and  the  Sabbath  assembly  the  opportunity 
for  his  first  sermon.  We  have  before  spoken  of  the  absurdity 
of  the  objection  that  St.  Paul,  as  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles, 
could  not  have  acted  in  this  manner.  But  as  Dr.  Zahn  has 
so  well  insisted  in  discussing  the  missionary  methods  in 
the  times  of  the  Apostles,  "  Where  was  the  missionary  to 
the  Gentiles  more  likely  to  come  across  Gentiles  looking  for 
salvation  than  in  the  synagogue  ?  To  the  missionary  to 
the  Gentiles  the  synagogue  formed  a  natural  bridge  to  that 
portion  of  the  heathen  population  which  was  open  to 
religious  impressions."  ^  It  is  quite  likely,  as  Dr.  Zahn  is 
also  careful  to  point  out,  that,  as  at  Lystra  and  at  Athens, 
the  Apostle  may  often  have  taught  in  public  or  in  the 
market  places.^  But  the  accounts  in  the  Acts,  which  always 
describe   him    as  going  first  to  the  Jewish    synagogue,  are 

'  Lightfoot,  Phili;ppians,  p.  123. 

*  See  also  Liddon,  Essays  and  Addresses,  p.  105  (1892). 

'  See  especially  his  recent  valuable  remarks  in  Art.  "  Paulus  der 
Apostel,"  in  the  3rd  edit,  of  Herzog's  Realencyclo^ddie,  Heft  141,  p.  75 
(1904). 


478     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

exactly  what  we  should  expect  ;  and  although  it  is  easy  to 
pass  a  kind  of  sneer  on  "  St.  Luke's  stereotyped  formula  " 
in  making  St.  Paul  thus  address  his  own  countrymen  first 
of  all,  the  strange  thing  would  surely  have  been  if  St.  Paul, 
with  all  his  intense  patriotism,  with  his  heart's  desire  and 
supplication  for  Israel  that  they  might  be  saved,  had  passed 
by  the  door  of  the  synagogue  without  entering,  and  had 
never  made  an  effort  to  enlighten  his  countrymen  as  to  the 
message  which  pointed  to  the  Christ  as  the  same  Lord, 
rich  unto  all  that  called  upon  Him,  and  which  knew  no 
distinction  between  Jew  and  Greek. 

If,  therefore,  we  thus  regard  the  Apostle's  habitual  mode 
of  action  in  going  first  to  the  Jew  and  then  to  the  Gentile, 
we  shall  see  how  such  a  plan  not  only  falls  in  with  his 
natural  and  national  instincts,  with  his  intense  affection  for 
those  who  were  his  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh,  but  how 
it  was  likely  to  forward  and  expedite  his  work.  Moreover, 
if  we  bear  in  mind  this  mode  of  action,  which  was  so 
characteristic  of  the  great  missionary,  who  could  become  a 
Jew  to  the  Jew,  no  less  than  a  Greek  to  the  Greek,  much 
further  light  is  thrown  upon  the  Apostle's  addresses  in  the 
Acts. 

It  is  quite  true,  as  we  have  observed,  that  the  address  at 
the  Pisidian  Antioch  is  the  only  missionary  address  to  Jews 
which  is  given  us  at  any  length  in  the  Acts.  But  it  does  not 
follow  that  the  speeches  at  Lystra  or  at  Athens  contained 
the  whole  substance  of  St.  Paul's  preaching  in  these  places. 
On  the  contrary,  as  we  have  some  reason  to  believe,  the 
addresses  both  at  Lystra  and  at  Athens  were  called  forth 
by  special  circumstances,  and  we  are  definitely  informed 
that  St.  Paul  reasoned  at  Athens  in  the  synagogue  with 
the  Jew  and  the  proselyte.  But  it  is  quite  unreasonable  to 
suppose  that  this  teaching  could  have  been  carried  on  with- 
out some  definite  reference  to  the  words  and  acts  of  Jesus. 
No  one  has  insisted  upon  this  more  strongly  than  Dr.  Zahn 


ST.   PAUL  AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       479 

in  his  account  of  the  Apostle's  missionary  methods,  and  we 
have  already  seen  how  much  Dr.  J.  Weiss,  a  writer  of  a 
very  different  school,  is  prepared  to  grant  as  presupposed  in 
St.  Paul's  missionary  preaching.  Even  Wernle,  who  mini- 
mises St.  Paul's  acquaintance  with  the  facts  of  the  life  of 
Jesus,  is  constrained  to  grant  that  the  Apostle  may  have 
entered  into  some  detail  as  to  these  facts  in  his  missionary 
teaching. 

One  of  the  fullest  accounts  of  St.  Paul's  life  and  work 
which  we  have  lately  received  from  Germany,  by  Dr. 
Weinel,  dwells  with  great  eloquence  and  at  considerable 
length  upon  the  preparation  for  the  Gospel.  It  is  pointed 
out,  for  instance,  how  the  soil  was  prepared  for  it  both 
outwardly  in  the  empire  and  inwardly  in  men's  hearts, 
and  how  the  door  which  St.  Paul  said  was  open  to  him 
at  Ephesus  was  in  reality  open  to  him  throughout  the 
whole  wide  empire.  As  we  might  expect,  reference  is  made 
to  the  preparation  for  the  Gospel  message  afforded  by  the 
guilds,  the  clubs,  the  mysteries  ;  but  it  is  also  frankly 
acknowledged  that  deeper  than  any  such  influences  was  the 
religious  need.  Philosophy  had  destroyed  the  old  gods,  and 
even  the  populace  craved  in  some  sort  for  the  wisdom  which 
the  philosophers  claimed.  Stronger,  too,  than  the  desire  for 
enlightenment  and  wisdom  in  all  classes,  was  the  longing  for 
a  revelation  ;  and  at  such  a  time  when  scepticism  prevailed 
as  to  truth,  the  more  absurd  the  claims  of  any  Eastern  religion, 
the  higher  was  the  value  set  upon  it ;  but  behind  all  this 
scepticism  and  extravagance  there  was,  nevertheless,  a  genuine 
craving  for  purity  and  a  higher  life.^  But  this  picture,  which 
corresponds  so  closely  in  many  respects  to  that  drawn  in  an 
earlier  lecture,  has  this  special  value  for  our  subject.  The 
description  is  meant  to  lead  up  to  the  statement  that  St.  Paul 
was  the  man  for  the  time  ;  he  represented  Christianity  as 
the  time  demanded — for  the  Greek  as  wisdom,  for  the  Jew 
*  Weinel,  Paulus,  Der  Mensch  und  sein  Werk,  pp.  127-8. 


480     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

as  righteousness,  but  for  all  men  alike  as  a  redemption  and 
a  revelation.  The  same  writer  also  treats  at  length  of 
St.  Paul's  missionary  preaching  ;  and  he  tells  us  that  if  we 
want  to  understand  what  that  preaching  was,  we  must  have 
recourse  to  the  positive  references  to  it  contained  in  the 
Apostle's  own  letters.^  And  so  he  takes  his  stand  upon  such 
a  passage  as  that  which  meets  us  in  St.  Paul's  earliest 
Epistle,  which  shows  us  how  he  had  exhorted  the  Thessa- 
lonians  to  turn  unto  God  from  idols  and  serve  a  living  and 
true  God  (i  Thess.  i.  9).  Here  is  a  point  which,  though 
placed  first  in  the  missionary  preaching,  plays  no  role  in  the 
Epistles. 

The  Apostle  had  commenced  his  preaching  by  contrast- 
ing the  living  and  true  God  with  the  dumb  idols  of  wood 
and  stone.  Life,  eternal  life,  was  what  men  were  seeking, 
and  only  the  living  God  could  confer  such  a  gift ;  and  so  the 
Apostle  reaches  the  centre  of  his  preaching — the  living  God, 
who  had  spoken  to  men  by  His  works  and  in  their  consciences 
and  had  proved  Himself  to  be  the  possessor  of  all  power, 
in  that  He  had  raised  His  Son  from  the  dead.  But 
we  are  assured  almost  on  the  same  page  that  Paul  had  not 
related  much  about  Jesus,  that  he  had  only  spoken  of  His 
death  and  at  the  same  time  of  His  mighty  working.  True, 
he  had  represented  Jesus  as  crucified  before  the  eyes  of  the 
Galatians  ;  he  had  told  the  Corinthians  of  his  determination 
to  know  nothing  among  them  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him 
crucified,  and  in  this  message  of  the  Cross  the  Apostle  had 
shown  most  effectively  the  love  and  the  power  of  God  and 
the  reality  and  gravity  of  sin.  But  of  the  actual  life  of 
Jesus  it  would  seem  that  St.  Paul  had  related  little  or 
nothing.  Probably  the  moral  commands  and  the  sayings 
of  Jesus  were  more  prominent  in  the  course  of  later 
instruction,  and  probably,  too,  the  detailed  proofs  from  the 
Old  Testament  prophecies  were  mentioned  later,  although 
^  Weinel,  u.s.  p.  143. 


ST.   PAUL  AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       481 

the  first  preaching  would  contain,  no  doubt,  a  reference  to 
the   ancient   revelation  of  God.     But  the  same  writer  who 
gives   us  this   description    of    Paul's    missionary   preaching, 
which  seems  to    lay  little    stress    upon    the    life    of  Jesus, 
proceeds   to    show  how   the   example  of  Jesus    must  have 
formed  a  part  of  the  Apostle's  preaching,  or  he  would  not 
so  often  have  referred  to  it,  and  no  writer  has  more  fully 
emphasised,  as  we  shall  see  later,  in  a  further  page  of  his 
book    the  knowledge  which    Paul   possessed  of  our   Lord's 
earthly  life,  a  knowledge  shown  in  the  incidental  references 
which  the  Apostle  makes  to  the  conditions  in  which  Jesus  lived. 
Another  well-known   German,   Professor   Wernle,  sees  in 
Paul   the  great  missionary  Apostle,  and  at  the  same  time 
one  of  the   greatest   Church  organisers    for  all  time  ;    and 
Christianity,  he  holds,  has  never  had  a  greater  or  a  wiser 
teacher  of  the  religious  common  life  than  the  mystic  who 
insisted  so  much  upon  the  personal  relation  of  man  to  God. 
He  finds   the   proof  of  this   in   the    manner   in   which   the 
Apostle  uses  the  forms  which  he  found  in  the  Jewish  Church 
or   in    the   heathen   mysteries,   or  in  the  Greek  religion,  in 
the  service  of  the  Christian  Church  ;  without  mysteries  there 
is  no  religion,  no  guarantee  of  a  world  beyond  the  grave. 
Reference    has    already    been    made    to    the    exposition    of 
similar  views.      It  may  be  sufficient  here  to  note  that  this 
insistence  upon  the  social  power  of  the  Holy  Communion 
ought    to    make    such    writers    ask    not    only   whence   that 
social   power  was  derived,   but   whether   this    power   would 
have  had  any  existence  at  all  except  for  a  certain  historical 
fact  ?      If  Christians  celebrated    the    Lord's  Supper  on  the 
first    day   of  the  week,  it  was   because   they  believed    that 
our  Lord  rose  on   that  day.      But  if,  as  Wernle  elsewhere 
asks  us  to  do,  we  are  to  regard  all  the  appearances  con- 
nected  with    our    Lord's    resurrection    as    later    accretions  ; 
if  there  was  no  grave  found  empty  ;  if  the  Holy  Communion 
'  Wernle,  Paulus  als  Heidenmissionar,  pp.  26,  29. 

31 


482     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

was  only  gradually  regarded  in  the  Church  as  an  ordinance 
instituted  by  our  Lord  Himself,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
this  wonderful  power,  of  which  Wernle  speaks  so  enthusi- 
astically, could  have  had  any  endurance  or,  in  fact,  any 
origin.^  But  this  endurance,  we  are  assured,  is  due  to  the 
work  and  the  genius  of  St.  Paul,  and  that  work  called  into 
being  an  organisation  more  enduring  and  endowed  with 
fuller  life  than  the  Roman  state  itself  And  this  work 
was  fostered  by  Christian   faith  and   Christian   love.^ 

But  is  it  possible  that  the  faith  and  love  of  the  early 
Church  were  sustained  by  a  fanciful  interpretation  of  Old 
Testament  prophecies,  or  by  a  reception  of  Holy  Baptism 
which  reduced  it  to  the  level  of  a  magical  or  mechanical 
rite,  or  by  an  ingenious  combination  of  ideas  derived  from 
Jewish  sacrifices  and   pagan   mysteries  ? 

Let  us  look  at  the  matter  a  little  more  closely.  We 
are  asked  to  picture  St.  Paul  entering  the  synagogue  and 
proclaiming  that  the  Messiah  has  come.  And  in  answer 
to  the  question  where  is  He,  and  what  is  He  doing  now  ? 
St.  Paul  proclaims  the  Gospel  of  the  Cross.  But  such  a 
proclamation  must  have  been  a  matter  of  the  most  profound 
astonishment  to  every  Jew  in  the  synagogue.  How,  then, 
must  the  claims  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  be  sustained  ?  By 
a  series  of  references  to  the  Scriptures  in  a  manner  quite 
devoid  of  any  regard  to  the  actual  historical  meaning 
of  these  writings.  And  as  one  result  of  this  wonderful 
procedure  we  are  further  asked  to  believe  that  Jews,  in 
the  name  of  a  crucified  fellow  countryman,  were  ready  to 
share  in  a  common  meal  with  Gentiles,  and  to  become 
members  of  one  and  the  same  Church.  Or,  if  we  turn 
to  the  Gentiles,  we  are  asked  to  believe  that  the  only 
thing  they  had  to  do  was  to  listen  to  and  accept  the 
Apostle's  preaching,  and  to  be  baptized   forthwith. 

'  Die  Anfdnge  unserer  Religion,  pp.  70,  82,  85. 

*  Wernle,  Paulus  als  Heidenmissionar,  pp.  22-3,  29. 


ST.   PAUL  AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       483 

But  the  formula  of  baptism  would  have  created  some 
difficulty  to  the  mind  of  an  intelligent  Gentile,  and  he  would 
have  felt  little  inclination  to  be  baptized  into  the  name  of 
a  crucified  Jew,  unless  his  mental  powers  were  of  such  an 
order  as  to  make  him  the  willing  slave  of  every  kind  of 
superstitious  quackery. 

But  if  this  was  the  type  of  man  from  which  the 
converts  to  Christianity  were  recruited,  what  becomes  of 
the  moral  beauty  of  the  Christian  life  or  of  the  mani- 
festation of  a  character  to  the  sublimity  of  which  no 
pagan  ethics  had  ever  attained  ?  And  yet,  as  a  matter 
of  historical  fact,  we  know  that  baptism  "  in  the  name  of 
Jesus "  was  not  the  mere  utterance  of  a  name.  The 
words  witnessed  to  a  divine  power  and  a  divine  per- 
sonality which  dominated  the  hearts  and  affections  of 
men,  and  united  as  one  holy  brotherhood  those  who  were 
far  removed  from  each  other  not  merely  by  land  and  sea, 
but  by  differences  of  nationality,  of  temperament,  of 
religion. 

We  have  previously  spoken  of  the  description  of 
Christianity  as  both  socialistic  and  individualistic,  and  this 
twofold  aspect  of  our  faith  has  its  bearing  not  merely  upon 
the  ordinary  relationships  of  family  life,  but  also  upon  the 
attitude  of  the  Christian  to  missionary  work  and  enterprise. 
No  writer  of  the  New  Testament  has  insisted  more  strongly 
than  St.  Paul  upon  the  solidarity  of  the  human  race.^  All 
Christians  unite,  in  St.  Paul's  conception,  to  form  a  single 
man  ;  the  barriers  between  Jew  and  Greek  and  bond  and 
free  are  broken  down.  "  There  can  be,"  he  writes  to  the 
Galatians,  "  neither   Jew   nor  Greek  ;   there  can  be    neither 

*  "  God,  it  is  said,  in  the  Acts,  has  made  all  nations  of  one  blood 
to  dwell  together  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Here  is  a  revolution  greater 
than  any  political  or  social  revolution  in  history.  In  the  Greek  or 
Latin  writers  you  may  find  faint  breathings  of  a  common  humanity  ; 
you  will  find  no  recognition  of  universal  brotherhood  "  (Goldwin  Smith, 
The  Founder  of  Christendom,  p.  17). 


484    TESTIMONY  OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

bond  nor  free  ;  there  can  be  no  male  and  female,  for  ye  all 
are  one  man  in  Christ  Jesus "  (Gal.  iii.  28).  And  as  the 
years  rolled  on,  St.  Paul  is  ready  to  impress  this  vital  truth 
not  less,  but  more  emphatically.  We  read  the  Epistles  of 
his  first  captivity,  Ephesians  and  Colossians.  As  he  writes 
to  the  Ephesians  he  rejoices  in  the  thought  that,  as  it  has 
been  well  put,  the  Jew  lost  nothing,  he  gained  everything — 
gained  new  brothers,  gained  the  whole  Gentile  world  ;  while 
the  Gentile,  too,  had  gained  all — he,  indeed,  had  nothing  to 
lose  ;  ^  he  had  gained  brotherhood  with  the  Jew,  a  place  in 
the  divine  family.  And  as  he  writes  to  the  Colossians,  the 
Apostle  thinks  of  the  new  man  renewed  unto  knowledge 
after  the  image  of  Him  that  created  him,  where  there  cannot 
be  Greek  and  Jew,  circumcision  and  uncircumcision,  barbarian, 
Scythian,  bondmen,  freemen  ;  but  Christ  is  all  and  in  all 
(Col.  iii.  11).  In  the  words  "barbarian,  Scythian,"  we  have 
not,  as  in  the  other  clauses,  an  antithesis,  but  a  climax,  for 
in  St.  Paul's  days,  at  all  events,  the  Scythians  were  looked 
upon  as  more  barbarous  than  the  barbarians  ;  and  yet 
even  they  were  to  be  brought  to  God  in  Christ,  and  to  be 
sharers  of  the  hopes  and  inheritance  of  the  saints. 

Men,  alas !  are  slow  to  recognise  the  obligation  which 
such  words  impose  upon  us  as  Christians  to-day.  The 
writer  of  a  very  thoughtful  article  in  The  East  and  the  West 
has  pointed  out  how  the  difficulty  which  men  had  and  still 
have  in  recognising  this  indefinite  extension  of  the  area  of 
Christian  duty  is  brought  home  to  us  by  the  study  of  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  that  St.  Luke's  profound  sense  of 
proportion  is  witnessed  to  by  the  manner  in  which  he  has 
emphasised  the  central  conflict  in  the  early  history  of  the 
faith.  "  In  the  persecution,"  adds  the  writer,  "  of  St. 
Stephen,  in  the  story  of  Cornelius,  narrated  at  what  might 
seem  such  disproportionate  length,  in  the  whole  history  of 
St.   Paul  we  find   this  battle  being  fought  out,  as  the  very 

'  Dean  of  Westminster,  Ejphesians,  p.  62. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       485 

central  and  crucial  one  .  .  .  and  the  old  antagonism  of  the 
Judaising  teachers  who  opposed  St.  Paul  reappears  to-day  in 
the  ignoring  of  our  world-wide  duty,  and  in  the  prejudice 
of  Colonial  Christians  against  missionary  work  among  the 
native  races  which  surround  them,  whom  they  decline  to 
recognise  as  brothers."  ^ 

But  then  the  same  St.  Paul  insists  most  strongly,  as  we 
have  seen,  upon  the  value  and  accountability  before  God  of 
each  human  soul.  And  the  immediate  need  of  insisting 
upon  this  aspect  of  St.  Paul's  teaching  has  been  recently 
brought  home  to  us  in  a  very  striking  manner.  It  has,  for 
instance,  been  maintained  ^  that  the  preaching  of  the 
Christian  missionaries  with  regard  to  suicide  is  one  of  the 
greatest  obstacles  to  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  Japan, 
and  they  have  been  urged  by  a  thoughtful  Japanese  writer 
to  reconsider  their  position  and  their  teaching  as  to  the 
sinfulness  of  this  act  of  suicide.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
most  important  to  note  that  there  are  indications  amongst 
the  Japanese  themselves  that  in  many  quarters  this  sanction 
of  suicide  in  war  no  longer  exists,  and  that  as  it  is  not 
considered  disgraceful  to  be  made  a  prisoner  in  battle,  so 
the  original  reason  for  committing  suicide  is  now  removed.^ 

1  Bishop  Hamilton  Baynes,  "  The  Ethical  Basis  of  Missionary 
Enthusiasm,"  October  (1904). 

2  The  East  and  the  West,  p.  loi,  January,  1905. 

3  "  In  all  Christian  countries  suicide  is  considered  a  sin.  It  is 
ascribed  either  to  lunacy  or  to  lack  of  courage  to  meet  life's  difficulties. 
In  England,  since  the  Middle  Ages,  suicide  has  been  legally  punishable. 
That  every  soldier  should  go  out  to  battle  prepared  to  die  for  his 
country  is  eminently  desirable,  but  the  notion  that  the  more  who  die 
the  better,  and  that  men  should  resort  to  suicide  to  increase  the 
mortality,  would  certainly,  if  encouraged,  conduce  to  national  annihilation 
in  the  case  of  a  long  war.  The  hope  of  the  many  should  be,  while 
facing  death,  to  escape  it  and  come  home  victorious  "  (Extract  from 
a  speech  delivered  last  September  to  the  Tokyo  Education  Society 
against  suicide,  by  Professor  Ukita).  The  speaker  is  a  Christian,  but 
the  Japan  Weekly  Mail  points  out  that  the  same  opinions  are  shared 
by  many  who  are  not  Christians.  See  Quarterly  Paper  of  the  Guild 
of  St  Paul,  Easter,  1905,  p.  10. 


486     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

But  unfortunately,  whilst  the  importance  and  the  greatness 
of  national  unity  have  been  taught  in  Japan,  and,  no  doubt, 
with  splendid  results,  the  counter  truth  of  Christianity  is 
comparatively  unrecognised  and  unknown.  Christianity 
never  forbids  a  man  to  sacrifice  his  life  for  others  unselfishly, 
but  it  does  forbid  him  to  sacrifice  it  for  himself  selfishly. 
"  No  man  liveth  to  himself  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself," 
wrote  St.  Paul,  and  so  far  he  might  seem  to  inculcate  merely 
the  human  virtue  of  Altruism  ;  but  St.  Paul  adds  what  no 
mere  human  code  of  ethics  could  add,  the  reason  of  Christian 
obligation  and  service  :  "  For  whether  we  live  we  live  unto 
the  Lord,  and  whether  we  die  we  die  unto  the  Lord." 

But  whilst  the  Christian  thus  recognises  the  supreme 
obligation  to  Christ,  he  is  conscious  that  patriotism  has 
never  been  a  virtue  alien  to  his  faith,  and  he  remembers 
how  the  Lord  wept  a  patriot's  tears  over  Jerusalem,  and  how 
his  greatest  missionary  Apostle  was  ready  to  exclaim,  "  For 
the  hope  of  Israel  I  am  bound  with  this  chain." 

Christianity,  indeed,  would  take  this  great  virtue  of 
patriotism  and  deepen  it  and  strengthen  it,  inasmuch  as  it 
would  always  bid  us  to  be  mindful  that  there  are  other  and 
more  subtle  foes  even  than  the  greed  and  ambition  of  other 
nations,  and  that  those  words  of  St.  Paul  in  which  he  warns 
us  that  we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
foes  more  deadly  in  their  destruction  of  all  moral  and  true 
progress,  have  their  bearing  upon  national  as  well  as  upon 
individual  life. 

Japanese  patriotism  may  in  truth  teach  us  in  England  a 
very  severe  and  salutary  lesson  in  its  stern  and  supreme 
devotion  to  national  aims  and  interests.^  But  still  there  are, 
if  report  speaks  truly,  evils  in  Japanese  life  which  may  .sap 
and  will  sap  the  vigour  of  any  nation  unless  watched  and 
remedied.     There  is,  for  instance,  the  looseness  of  the  marriage 

•  See  "Japanese  Patriotism  and  Christianity,"  p.  271,  The  Inter- 
^reter^  March,  1905. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   MISSIONARY   WORK        487 

tie  and  the  consequent  impairment  of  home  Hfe  and  home 
affection.  This  is  one  reason,  at  least,  why  we  may  believe 
that  Japan  would  gain  no  small  advantage  by  an  acceptance 
of  the  Christian  faith,  for  no  one  will  dispute  that  even  in  the 
most  degenerate  days  the  sanctity  of  home  life  prevails 
wherever  Christianity  is  recognised  in  deed  and  in  truth. 
And  in  this  connection  we  may  remind  ourselves  that  it  is 
possible  to  point  to  some  facts  which  must  in  time  promote 
the  growth  at  least  of  the  Christian  spirit  in  Japan. 

A  Japanese  writer,  e.g.,  has  recently  given  us  his  thoughts 
upon  The  Awakening  of  Japan,  and  he  tells  us,  amongst 
other  things,  that  "  the  elevation  of  womanhood  is  one  of  the 
noblest  messages  that  Christianity  has  given  us." 

There  is,  moreover,  an  absence  of  the  evil  against  which 
the  missionaries  of  the  early  Church  had  to  fight,  an  evil 
which  has  so  often  proved  prejudicial  to  Christian  work  in 
India  ;  an  absence  of  the  class  prejudice  ;  so  that  the  rich  and 
the  poor  already  unite  together  without  scruple  in  Christian 
fellowship.^  In  the  Japan  Church  of  to-day  one  may  find 
educated  men  like  the  teachers  of  English  in  good  schools, 
government  officials,  and  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  and  St. 
Paul's  words  are  finding  their  fulfilment  as  the  members  of 
such  a  Church,  drawn  together  from  every  social  class, 
become  "  one  man  in  Christ  Jesus."  There  is,  again,  the 
recognition  in  Japan  of  the  benevolent  and  civilising 
agencies  of  Christianity  as  seen,  for  example,  in  the  Red 
Cross  Society,  the  very  name  of  which  must  tell  its  own 
tale  to  a  quick  and  impressionable  people,  and  in  the 
spread  through  Christian  influence  of  hospitals  and  homes 
and  orphanages.  But  the  danger  is  lest  Christianity 
should  come  to  be  regarded  as  consisting  of  these  in- 
fluences, and  lest  the  Christian  spirit  should  be  recognised 
without  the  corresponding  recognition  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

1  "The  Japan  Church"  in  The  East  and  the  West,  April,  1905. 


488     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

No  modern  nation  has  learnt  more  truly  than  Japan  that 
there  is  nothing  fruitful  except  sacrifice,  and  it  may  well  be 
that  her  people  already  see  in  the  Cross  the  symbol  of  self- 
denying  service  and  love.  The  Cross  was  all  that  for  St.  Paul, 
but  it  was  something  more.  And  those  who  are  trying  to  win 
them  to  Christianity  are  telling  us  that  there  is  evidence  that 
the  Cross  is  something  more  for  many  men  and  women  in 
Japan,  and  that  beneath  the  surface  of  the  life,  which  even 
as  we  view  it  is  so  full  of  pathos,  so  eager  to  love  the 
highest  when  it  is  seen  and  known,  so  rich  in  patient 
endeavour,^  there  is  a  sense  of  sin  which  must  be  awakened 
sooner  or  later  in  all  who  are  brought  near  to  the  love  and 
purity  of  Christ.^ 

That  sense  of  sin  and  of  its  burden,  the  truth  that  the 
whole  creation  is  groaning  and  travailing  in  pain  because 
its  need  of  redemption  has  not  been  fulfilled,  is  the  great 
truth  which  St.  Paul  proclaimed,  and  it  is  proclaimed  by  the 
comparative  study  of  religion  to-day  ;  and  unless  Christianity 
could  assure  us  that  the  burden  can  be  lifted  and  a 
Redeemer  found,  it  could  not  rightly  or  justly  claim  to  be 
a  Gospel  for  all  mankind.^ 

"  The  value  of  comparative  religion,"  said  Dr.  Jevons  at 
the  Church  Congress  of  1904,  "  is  that  it  shows  that  the 
question  which  Christianity  undertakes  to  answer  is  the 
question  which  shakes  every  religious-minded  man  to  the 
very  centre  of  his  being,  whatever  his  religion,  '  What  shall  I 
do  to  be  saved  ?  '"  *  I  have  spoken  hitherto  principally  of 
Japan,  because  of  its  immediate  interest  for  us  as  a  Church 

'  See,  e.g.y  Kokoro,  by  Lafcadio  Hearn. 

»  Quarterly  Paper  of  St.  Pauls  Guild,  p.  14,  July,  1904. 

'  See  Dr.  Jevons'  paper  "  Christianity  and  Other  Religions," 
Liverpool  Church  Congress,  1904. 

^  In  his  treatment  of  St.  Paul's  attitude  to  Greek  philosophy, 
Professor  Ramsay  has  recently  remarked  that  "there  was  in  Hellenic 
thought  no  real  conception  of  sin.  .  .  .  Such  an  idea  as  rising  above 
oneself,  trampling  one's  nature  under  foot  as  sinful,  striving  after  the 
divine  nature,  is  essentially  anti-Hellenic,  and  it  is  only  rarely  that 


ST.   PAUL  AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       489 

and  as  a  nation.  "  When  before,"  the  question  has  well  been 
asked,  "  in  the  history  of  missions  since  the  first  days  had 
the  Church  to  evangelise  a  first-class  power  and  a  people 
bubbling  over  with  life,  and  reaching  out  as  a  nation  to  all 
the  noblest  instincts  of  humanity  and  justice  and  freedom  ? 
It  is  in  this  uniqueness  of  Japan  as  a  mission  field  that  the 
claim  comes  so  strongly  to  England  in  bringing  this  country 
to  Christ."^ 

But  we  must  perforce  turn  to  another  field  of  missionary 
work,  which  is  always  of  permanent  interest — that  of  our 
great  dependency  of  India.  Students  of  comparative  re- 
ligion often  mark  the  points  of  likeness  between  Hinduism 
and  Christianity,  but  there  are  differences  between  them  so 
great  as  to  be  fundamental  ;  and  in  this  connection  it  is 
deeply  important  to  remember  two  things  :  first,  that  St.  Paul's 
words  about  the  Cross  which  he  spake  to  the  Jew  and  to 
the  Greek  are  true  of  Hindu  thought  to-day.  Thus  the 
thought  of  a  suffering  and  a  dying  God  is  to  the  Hindu 
to-day  the  same  as  it  was  twenty  centuries  ago,  "  Unto  Jews 
a  stumbling-block,  and  unto  Gentiles  foolishness"  (i  Cor. 
i.  23,  R.V.).^ 

But  with  all  this  rejection  of  our  Lord's  atoning  death, 
it  is  none  the  less  true  that  the  life  of  Jesus  has  become  the 
ideal  of  life  for  the  cultured  classes  of  India  ;  and  as  is  the 
case  in  Japan,  so,  too,  in  India  there  is  the  recognition  that 
this  life  is  the  light  of  men,  and  that  St.  Paul  was  right 
when  he  bade  men  to  be  followers  of  Christ.^  It  is  surely 
a  gleam  of  hope  to  find  that  the  impression  made  by  our 

any  faint  traces  of  it  can  be  found  even  in  those  Hellenic  philosophers 
who  have  been  most  affected  by  foreign  thought."  "But,"  he  adds, 
"  it  was  in  this  revolt  from  the  yoke  of  sin,  in  this  intense  eagerness 
after  the  divine,  that  St.  Paul  found  the  motive  power  to  drive  men  on  " 
(Art.  "Religion  of  Greece,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  v.  150. 

'  Quarterly  Paper  of  St.  Paul's  Guild,  p.  8,  July,  1904. 

*  "  Hindu  Religious  Ideals,"  The  East  and  the  West,  p.  167, 
April,  1904. 

3  The  East  and  the  West,  u.s.  p.  175  ;  also  October,  1904,  p.  476. 


490     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Lord's  character  is  so  widely  spread  to-day,  and  the  prayer 
of  St.  Paul  may  well  rise  to  our  lips  that  men  who  are  thus 
drawn  by  the  ethical  beauty  of  the  character  of  the  Gospels 
"  may  grow  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus   Christ." 

But  as  evidence  increases  to  show  us  how  marvellous  is 
the  effect  which  the  beauty  of  Christian  character  and  the 
ideal  as  seen  in  our  Lord  have  had  upon  the  intelligence 
and  reverence  of  the  Hindu,  and  as  men  justify  their  larger 
hope  for  the  future  of  India  by  reminding  us  of  those  striking 
words  of  Keshub  Chunder  Sen,  "  None  but  Jesus  ever 
deserved  this  bright,  this  precious  diadem,  India  ;  and  Jesus 
shall  have  it,"  ^  all  this  does  not  lessen,  but  increase,  our 
responsibilities,  and  it  should  in  proportion  increase  our 
efforts.  "  A  consecrated  imperialism  "  ought  to  be  our  in- 
centive and  our  aim.  Can  we  doubt  that  it  was  so  with 
St.  Paul  ?  Can  we  doubt  that  such  a  phrase  "  a  consecrated 
imperialism  "  expresses  the  spirit  of  St.  Paul  and  the  manner 
in  which  he  would  have  us  work  to-day  ?  ^  And  if  a 
great  door  is  opened  to  us  in  India,  it  may  be  said  with 
truth  that  in  Africa  a  totally  new  departure  has  been 
constituted  for  us  by  the  events  of  the  past  generation. 
Take,  e.g.,  the  new  colonies  added  to  our  imperial  rule  in 
South  Africa  by  the  recent  war,  and  consider  how  pressing, 
as  we  have  just  been  told,  is  the  question  of  religious 
education,  an  influence  which  will  affect  as  no  other  the  life 
of  a  new  colony,  for  in  children  we  always  see  the  to- 
morrow of  society. 

When  St.  Paul  wrote  to  a  Roman  colony  like  Philippi, 
he  does  not  forget  that  he  is  writing  to  fellow  citizens  ;  on 
the  contrary,  he  emphasises  the  thought  of  the  citizenship 
in  which  both  he  and  his  converts  shared.     "  Only  behave  as 

'  See  the  words  quoted  in  the  Hibbert  Jourfial,  p.  625,  April,  1905. 
^  For  the  phrase  see  "  A  Generation  of  Missions,"  by  the  Bishop  of 
St.  Albans,  The  East  and  the  West,  p.  4,  January,  1905. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   MISSIONARY   WORK        491 

citizens,"  he  writes,  "  worthily  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  "  (Phil, 
i.  27).  And  how  were  they  to  play  their  part  as  good 
citizens  ?  We  remember  how  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel 
at  Philippi  had  recognised  the  honour  of  women  and  the 
claims  of  the  slave,  how  it  had  hallowed  the  relationships  of 
the  family  and  the  home,  and  how  the  highest  example 
was  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  duties  of  Christian 
charity,  "  Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus";  how  the  Apostle  prayed  that  the  love  of  his  converts 
might  abound  in  knowledge  and  all  discernment  (Phil.  i.  8). 
And  yet  there  was  something  more  to  add  :  "  Finally, 
brethren,  whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are 
honourable,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things 
are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are 
of  good  report ;  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any 
praise,  take  account  of  these  things  "  (Phil.  iv.  8). 

The  Apostle  of  Christ  was  not  afraid  to  claim,  in  the 
name  and  for  the  service  of  his  Master,  all  that  was  good 
even  in  the  pagan  world  around  him.^  We  speak  of  a 
liberal  education,  but  could  any  education  be  more  deeply 
rooted  in  its  principles  and  yet  wider  in  its  scope  than  that 
which  St.  Paul's  exhortations  to  the  Philippians  would  teach 
us  to  offer  to  our  fellow  citizens  to-day  ? 

What,  it  is  often  asked,  were  the  qualities  which  made 

*  In  this  connection  the  recent  remarks  of  Professor  Ramsay  may  be 
specially  noted  (Art.  "Religion  of  Greece,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  v.  150). 
St.  Paul,  he  says,  "would  not  have  his  Churches  lose  anything  of  the 
excellences  of  the  Greek  spirit.  His  extreme  fondness  for  the  word 
charts  can  hardly  be  quite  separated  in  his  mind,  and  could  not 
possibly  be  separated  in  the  minds  of  his  numerous  Hellenic  readers, 
from  the  Greek  charts,  the  grace  and  charm  which  is  of  the  essence  of 
Hellenism.  And  he  sums  up  in  three  Greek  words  his  counsel  to  the 
Colossians  and  to  the  Asians  generally,  when  he  urged  them  to  '  make 
their  market  to  the  full  of  the  opportunity  which  their  situation  offered 
them  '  "  (Col.  iv.  5  ;  Eph.  v.  16;  cf.  Phil.  iv.  4,  8).  At  the  same  time  it 
will  be  remembered  that  in  this  same  article  (see  above)  Professor 
Ramsay  rightly  lays  his  finger  upon  the  great  fault  of  the  Greek  Sophia 
of  the  time,  the  absence  of  any  real  conception  of  sin. 


492     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

St.  Paul  so  great  and  so  successful  as  a  missionary  ?  First, 
his  sincerity.  This  is  frankly  acknowledged,  just  as  we 
have  seen  that  the  Apostle's  tact  was  acknowledged,  in 
quarters  where  we  might  not  expect  the  recognition  to  be 
so  unqualified.^ 

Nothing  insincere  could  find  a  place  in  the  teaching  of 
a  man  who  lived  and  spoke  "  in  Christ  "  :  "  for  we  are  not 
as  the  many,  making  merchandise  of  the  word  of  God, 
but  as  of  sincerity,  but  as  of  God,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
speak  we  in  Christ  "  (2  Cor.  i.  17).  Three  times  in 
writing  to  the  Church  of  Corinth,  in  which  his  motives  and 
his  authority  had  been  impugned,  he  appeals  to  this 
virtue  of  sincerity,  and  in  writing  to  his  beloved  Philippians 
he  prays  that  they  may  be  sincere  (i.  10).  And  the 
testimony  of  his  conscience  bears  him  out  in  this  appeal 
to  a  sincerity  which  he  calls  a  sincerity  of  God,  and 
which  he  speaks  of  as  coming  from  God.  The  first  words 
attributed  to  the  Apostle  in  his  first  missionary  journey 
express  his  condemnation  of  guile  and  of  the  attempt  of 
the  sorcerer  Elymas  to  pervert  the  right  ways  of  the  Lord 
(Acts  xiii.  10)  ;  and  in  his  earliest  Epistle  he  reminds  the 
Thessalonians  that  his  exhortation  is  not  in  guile,  that  his 
constant  endeavour  had  been  to  please  not  men,  but  God, 
which  proveth  the  hearts  ;  and  there  is  a  ring  of  sincerity 
in  his  appeal  to  his  sufferings  and  labours  :  "  Even  as  ye 
know,"  he  says,  "  what  manner  of  men  we  showed  ourselves 
towards  you  for  your  sake  "  (i  Thess.  i.  5). 

To  this  sincerity  of  character  there  was  joined  a  boldness 
of  speech.  One  notable  word  expresses  this — Trappiqcria — a 
word  which  has  for  its  root  meaning  "  freedom,"  "  boldness  of 
speech,"  and  which  may  be  used  also  of  boldness  of  action. 
The  word  is  full  of  interest  in  its  New  Testament  use  ;  it 
is  characteristic  of  the  teaching  of  the  Apostles,  of  the 
teaching,  e.g.,  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  John,  nay,  even  of  our 
'  Wemle,  Paulus  als  Heidenmissionar,  pp.  16-17. 


ST.   PAUL  AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       493 

Lord  Himself,  and  it  frequently  occurs  in  this  relation  in  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John.      It  is  the  gift  for  which  the  Apostles 
pray    in    the    first    recorded    hymn    of    the    early    Church 
(Acts    iv.    29),    and    it    is    markedly    characteristic    of    St. 
Paul.      It  is    used    of  his   earliest    Christian    preaching    in 
Damascus,  of  the  great  crisis  in  the  Pisidian  Antioch  when 
he  turned  from  the  Jewish  to  the  Gentile  world  ;  it  is  used 
again    of  his    latest    missionary    preaching    in    Rome.       It 
occurs  in  his  earliest  Epistle  when  he  reminds  the  Thessa- 
lonians  that  suffering  had  only  intensified  his  boldness  ;    it  is 
his   closing   prayer   in    the    Epistle   to   the    Ephesians    that 
utterance  may  be   given    unto   him   in    opening  his  mouth 
to  make  known  with  boldness  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel  .  .  . 
that    in    it  he  may  speak  boldly,   as    he    ought    to    speak 
(Eph.  vi.   19-20).     And  with  this  boldness  of  speech  there 
was  a  marvellous  power  of  sympathy  both  in  word  and  in 
deed.      This    sympathy  may   well    have    conduced    to    the 
success   of   St.   Paul's   work    in    more   ways    than    one.      It 
showed  itself  in  the  desire  to  acknowledge  all  that  was  good 
and  all  that  savoured  of  truth  in  the  religious  beliefs  and 
aspirations  of  those  whom  he  sought  to  win.      Nowhere  is 
this   more   plainly  exemplified   than   at   Athens  ;  and  if  we 
acknowledge  this  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Apostle,  it  seems 
to  indicate  that  the  opening  words  of  his  address  were  not 
words  of  rebuke  or  of  contempt,  but  of  commendation  :  "  Ye 
men  of  Athens,  in  all  things  I  perceive  that  ye  are  some- 
what religious  "  (R.V.  marg.).      And  so  he  proceeds  to  press 
home  a  divine  truth  from  a  line  of  a  Greek  poet ;  and  from 
an  inscription   to   an   Unknown    God  whom  the  Athenians 
worshipped,  although  in  ignorance,  he  would  lead  them  on 
to  a  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth.^ 

In  this  tactfulness  of  St.  Paul,  in  this  touch  of  sympathy 
with  the  search  and    feeling  after    God,  we  may  still   find 
one  of  the  most  important  lessons  for  our  missionary  work 
'  Liddon,  Essays  and  Addresses,  p.  105. 


494    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

to-day.^  It  would  seem,  for  example,  from  the  statements 
of  those  who  know  India  well,  that  there  never  was  a  time 
when  it  was  more  needful  to  study  a  religion  like  that  of 
India  with  genuine  sympathy  and  with  a  serious  desire  to 
understand  its  inwardness  and  power.  Professor  Bousset  is 
evidently  fully  alive  to  the  working  of  this  vein  of  sympathy 
in  St.  Paul  when  he  speaks  of  him  as  "  an  Oriental  who 
made  the  Gospel  at  home  in  the  West,  and  who  became  to 
the  Jews  a  Jew,  to  the  Greeks  a  Greek."  ^  And  this  sym- 
pathy of  St.  Paul  showed  itself  not  only  in  a  desire  to 
appreciate  things  lovely  and  of  good  report,  but  in  an  intense 
personal  sympathy,  in  a  sympathy  not  only  with  truths,  but 
also  with  persons. 

There  is  one  passage  in  the  Apostle's  writings  which  in 
some  respects  stands  alone  ;  it  is  the  passage  in  which  he  is 
compelled,  in  spite  of  his  humility,  by  the  attacks  and  taunts 
of  his  opponents,  to  lift  the  veil  which  probably  would  have 
otherwise  concealed  from  us  for  ever  many  of  the  sorest 
dangers  and  struggles  of  his  life.  He  recounts  his  dangers 
and  his  fears  in  detail,  and  as  he  concludes  the  recital  he 
adds  to  the  list,  "  that  which  came  upon  him  daily,  the  care 
of  all  the  Churches  "  ;  and  then  follows  the  question  which 
shows  so  plainly  the  lesson  of  sympathy  which  he  had  learnt 
from  his  own  sufferings  and  his  own  ministry  :  "  Who  is 
weak  and  I  am  not  weak  ?  who  is  made  to  stumble  and  I  burn 
not  ?  "  The  weak  and  the  erring  came  to  him  with  some 
tale  of  shame,  with  some  instance  of  heartless,  selfish  decep- 
tion, and  the  Apostle  felt  the  shame  as  his  own,  and  the 
righteous  indignation  of  the  true  Christian  against  wrong. 
Such  words  reveal  both  the  tenderness  and  the  strength  of 
St.  Paul's  sympathy. 

It  was   this  same   Corinthian   Church    to   which   he   thus 
appealed  which  had  previously  shown   such  grievous  moral 

'  See  in  this  connection  Max  Muller,  Life  and  Letters,  ii.  436. 
*  Bousset,  Der  Apostel  Paulus,  p.  15. 


ST.   PAUL   AND   MISSIONARY   WORK       495 

enervation  and  such  a  scarcity  of  Christian  charity,  and  it  was 
to  the  same  Corinthian  Church  that  St.  Paul  had  written 
the  words  which  reveal  the  same  union  in  his  character  of 
tenderness  and  strength,  "  Quit  you  like  men,  be  strong  ;  let 
all  that  ye  do  be  done  in  love  "  (i  Cor.  xvi.  13). 

What  was  the  secret  which  sustained  this  sincerity  and 
simplicity  of  character,  this  straightforwardness  and  boldness 
of  speech,  this  wide  and  deep  sympathy  ?  It  was  "  the 
secret  of  a  durable  enthusiasm."  And  nowhere  is  this 
enthusiasm  revealed  more  plainly  than  in  the  words  of  the 
Apostle's  prayer  taken  from  the  Epistle  which  opens  out  the 
widest  sphere  of  Church  work  and  missionary  effort  for  all 
time  :  "  That  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  through  faith  ; 
to  the  intent  that  ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  love, 
may  be  strong  to  apprehend  with  all  the  saints  what  is  the 
breadth  and  length  and  height  and  depth,  and  to  know  the 
love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  may  be 
filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God  "  (Eph.  iii.  19). 


LECTURE    XXIV 
RECENT  LITERATURE 

IN  this  concluding  lecture  it  may  be  of  some  interest  to 
look  back  upon  the  literature  which  has  been  published 
during  the  last  two  years  in  connection  with  our  sub- 
ject. This  survey,  although  it  must  be  brief,  may  act  as  a 
kind  of  supplement  to  the  former  lectures.  In  the  first 
series  an  endeavour  was  made  to  show  that  we  are  justified 
in  accepting  the  Epistles  which  Church  tradition  refers  to 
St.  Paul,  and  also  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which  the  same 
Church  tradition  refers  to  St.  Luke.  Last  year  saw  the 
publication  in  Germany  oi  2^  Life  of  St.  Paul  which  claims 
the  title  of  "  scientific,"  and  we  are  informed  that  it  is  the 
first  life  of  the  great  Apostle  which  has  issued  from  Germany 
on  similar  lines  for  some  forty  years.^  The  writer.  Dr.  C. 
Clemen,  is  well  known  in  England,  and  his  close  connection 
with  our  subject  is  further  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  during 
this  present  year  he  has  published  a  small  pamphlet  on  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  considered  in  the  light  of  the  most 
comprehensive  critical  inquiry.  The  writer  shows  himself 
well  acquainted  with  our  English  literature,  and  many 
familiar  English  names  find  a  place  in  the  index  to  his 
Paulus? 

^  Paulus,  sein  Leben  und  Wirken,  in  two  volumes,  1904. 

*  It  is,  however,  suqarising  to  note  the  absence  of  such  distinguished 
scholars  as  Dr.  Salmon,  Dr.  Lock,  Dean  Bernard,  Mr.  Rendall,  and 
others,  whose  labours  on  the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  can 
scarcely  be  passed  over  in  silence. 

496 


RECENT   LITERATURE  497 

Dr.  Clemen  devotes  a  large  portion  of  the  first  volume  of 
his  work  to  a  refutation  of  the  theories  of  Van  Manen  and 
other  critics,  who  boldly  deny  that  St.  Paul  wrote  any 
Epistles,  or  that  we  know  anything  definitely  about  his 
personality.  It  may  seem  surprising  that  Dr.  Clemen 
spends  so  much  time  in  the  re-slaying  of  the  slain  ;  but 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Van  Manen's  theories  have 
been  very  recently  advocated  not  only  in  England,  but  in 
Germany,  by  a  certain  Pastor  Kalthoff,  whose  view  that 
Jesus  was  no  historical  person,  but  only  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  communistic  ideas  of  the  second  century, 
reminds  us  of  the  earlier  Dutch  critic.  Dr.  Loman.  In 
the  lectures  of  the  first  series  an  endeavour  was  made 
to  show  how  both  conservative  and  liberal  critics  join 
hands  in  repudiating  the  conclusions  of  the  Dutch  theo- 
logians, and  it  may  be  sufficient  here  to  add  that  Kalthoff's 
renewal  of  these  theories  has  been  sufficiently  met  and 
answered  by  Dr.  Bousset  in  his  well-known  little  book  ^ 
on  our  knowledge  of  Jesus — a  book  which  seems  to 
have  been  called  forth  by  the  laudable  desire  to  guard  the 
German  laity  against  the  fallacious  statements  of  Pastor 
Kalthoff  and  his  friends.^  Kalthoff's  first  reason  for  his 
negations  is  to  be  found  in  the  assertion  that  because  in  the 
course  of  critical  inquiry  some  Epistles  have  been  refused  to 
St.  Paul,  it  is  a  matter  of  no  great  difficulty  to  refuse  them 
all  to  St.  Paul.  This,  says  Bousset,  is  to  argue  as  if  because 
some  paintings  of  Rubens  have  been  shown  to  be  derived 
not  from  Rubens  himself,  but  from  his  school,  we  are  there- 
fore justified  in  thus  setting  aside  the  person  of  Rubens 
altogether.  And  he  rightly  proceeds  to  point  out  that  recent 
criticism,  so  far  from  justifying  a  refusal  to  St.  Paul  of 
a  large  number  of  letters,  has,  on  the  other  hand,  tended   to 

^  See  Theologische  Rundschau,  p.  248,  June,  1904,  and  Bousset,  Was 
wissen  wir  von  Jesus}  p.  9  (1904),  and  also  Von  Soden,  Urchristliche 
Literaiurgeschichie,  p.  59  (1905). 

32 


498     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL    TO   CHRIST 

justify  the  acceptance  of  a  large  majority  of  the  letters 
ascribed  to  him.^ 

At  the  present  moment  a  whole  series  of  little  books  of 
a  popular  kind,  on  religious-historical  questions,  is  being 
issued  in  Germany  at  the  price  of  a  few  pence  each,  written 
by  men  like  Pfleiderer,  H.  Holtzmann,  Von  Dobschiitz,  and 
others.  Professor  E.  Vischer  of  Basle,  known  to  us  in  England 
first  of  all  through  Dr.  Harnack,  writes  in  this  series  on  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul.  Although  he  is  well  aware  of  recent 
objections  raised  even  against  those  Epistles  which  have 
been  generally  recognised,  he  accepts  without  hesitation  all 
those  Epistles  to  the  number  of  nine  which  are  also  accepted 
by  Dr.  Clemen ;  and  even  when  he  comes  to  deal  with 
Ephesians,  he  frankly  acknowledges  that  the  alleged  objections 
are  by  no  means  decisive,  and  that  more  is  to  be  said  for 
St.  Paul's  authorship  than  against  it.^ 

When  we  turn  to  the  book  on  Paiilus  in  the  same  popular 
series,  written  by  a  very  advanced  critic.  Dr.  Wrede  of  Breslau, 
we  find  that  he  condemns  as  a  grievous  aberration  of  criticism 
the  recent  attempts  in  Holland  and  Germany  to  refer  all  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul  to  a  later  date,  and  that  he  insists  upon 
the  fact  that  like  i  Thessalonians,  Galatians  and  2  Corinthians 
point  in  numberless  ways  to  conditions  which  are  justly 
conceivable  at  the  exact  period  to  which  the  letters  have 
always  been  referred.  Wrede  himself  is  prepared  to  accept 
no  less  than  eight  of  the  Epistles  as  the  work  of  St.  Paul.^ 

Another  popular  series  on  a  more  expensive  scale,  which 
is  also  in  course  of  publication   in   Germany,  next  demands 

'  Mr.  J.  M.  Robertson's  Pagan  Christs  is  rightly  criticised  by  Pro- 
fessor Margoliouth,  Ex;positor  (December,  1904),  p,  411  :  "In  his  latest 
work,  however,  Mr.  Robertson  has  adopted  the  e.xtraordinary  view  of 
the  Epistles  propounded  by  Van  Manen,  who  regards  them  all  as 
spurious  ;  but  he  fails  to  draw  the  inference  that  the  evidence  of 
spurious  Epistles  would  not  be  worth  having." 

-  Die  Paulusbriefe,  p.  67,  ff  (in  the  series  Religionsgeschichtliche 
Volksbiicher),  1904. 

^  Paulus,  p.  2,  in  the  same  series,  1905. 


RECENT   LITERATURE  499 

our  attention.  The  work  on  St.  Paul  in  this  series,  which 
is  entitled  Lebensfragen,  is  committed  to  Dr.  Weinel.  In 
his  full  and  attractive  monograph  he  only  employs  six 
Epistles  as  coming  to  us  from  St.  Paul  ;  but  he  frankly 
admits  that  in  addition  to  these  six,  an  overwhelming  number 
of  critics  also  accept  the  Epistles  to  the  Colossians  and  to 
Philemon,  and  he  rightly  condemns  the  light-hearted  facility, 
not  to  say  inconsiderateness,  with  which  Kalthoff  decides 
against  these  and  other  Pauline  Epistles  in  a  few  brief  pages.^ 

It  is  important  to  note  that  Weinel,  no  less  than  Vischer,   y 
Wrede,  and  Clemen,  recognises  the  power  and  the  originality 
of  these  letters,  and  that  such  documents  irresistibly  proclaim 
and  demand  the  existence  of  a   strong   personality  behind 
them. 

Quite  apart  from  the  force  of  external  evidence  in  their 
favour,  this  must  always  remain  a  fact  of  the  highest 
importance.  How,  e.g.,  except  upon  this  supposition,  can  we 
account  for  the  language  of  St.  Clement  of  Rome,  when  he 
speaks  of  St.  Paul  as  having  preached  righteousness  unto  the 
whole  world  {Cor.,  5),  or  for  the  language  of  St.  Polycarp 
when  he  declares,  "  Neither  am  I,  nor  is  any  other  like  unto 
me,  able  to  follow  the  wisdom  of  the  blessed  and  glorious 
Paul  !  "  {Epist.,  3).^  It  is  important  to  note  that  Dr.  Clemen's 
name  may  here  be  added  to  the  list  of  those  who  accept 
the  much-disputed  2  Thessalonians,  although  he  still  rejects 
Ephesians  for  reasons  precisely  similar  to  those  which  we 
discussed  in  an  earlier  lecture.^ 

■'  '  Paulus,  Der  Mensch  und  sein  Werk,  pp.  313-14.  See  also  Von 
Soden,  Urchristliche  Literaturgeschichte,  p.  60  (1905). 

'  See  the  valuable  remarks  of  Dr.  Lock  at  the  Liverpool  Church 
Congress,  1904,  on  The  Authenticity  of  St.  PauVs  Epistles. 

'  Clemen,  Paulus,  i.  139.  See  Lecture  VL  in  first  series.  Many  of 
Dr.  Clemen's  objections,  as,  e.g.,  the  use  of  the  title  "  holy  "  in  Eph.  iii.  5, 
if  the  writer  was  St.  Paul,  have  been  sufficiently  answered  by  the  Dean 
of  Westminster  in  his  Efhesians  (p.  77),  and  by  Dr.  Lock  (Art. 
"  Ephesians,"  Hastings,  B.D.,  i.).  See  also  P.  Ewald,  Die  Brief e  des 
Paulus  an  die  Epheser,  Kolosser,  und  Philemon,  p.  i6o,  ff  (1905). 


500    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

With  regard  to  this  particular  Epistle,  the  present  year 

has  seen   the  publication  of  another  volume  of  the  valuable 

series  of  commentaries  edited  by  Dr.  Zahn.      In  this  volume 

Professor  P.  Ewald  defends  St.  Paul's  authorship  of  Colossians 

and  Ephesians  alike,  and  he  does  not  hesitate  to  characterise 

Ephesians  as  a  forgery  (not  merely  a  pseudonymous  writing) 

if  it  comes  to  us  from  any  hand  but  that  of  St.  Paul.^      The 

nett  result,  then,  of  Dr.  Clemen's  inquiries,  as,  indeed,  of  recent 

German    criticism   as   a   whole,   into   the   authorship   of  the 

Epistles  attributed  to   St.   Paul,  is  at  least  encouraging.      It 

is  exactly  sixty  years  ago  since  Ferdinand  Baur  wrote  his 

famous  work  on  St.  Paul  (1845),  and  we  recall  the  fact  that 

he  admitted  only  four    Epistles  as  coming   to  us   from    the 

Apostle's  hand,  viz.  Romans,  i  and  2  Corinthians,  Galatians. 

The  most  recent  criticism  in    Germany  allows  double  that 

number,  and  we  may  without    hesitation  add    to   the    four 

already  mentioned    i   Thessalonians,  Philippians,  Colossians, 

and  Philemon.^     Nor  must  it  be  forgotten,  as  we  have  pointed 

out,    that    even    the    much-disputed    2    Thessalonians    and 

[  Ephesians  are  accepted  by  many  able  critics,  and   that  the 

L  Pastoral  Epistles  are  by  no  means  entirely  rejected.^ 

One  word   in   passing  upon   the  term  "  scientific,"  which 

is  claimed  by  Dr.  Clemen  and  others,  whilst  all  conservative 

critics  are  described  as  "  apologetic."      If  we  look  carefully 

into   Dr.    Clemen's    book,    we    find    that   some    few    years 

ago   he   entertained    very   different   views    on    some    points 

to  those  which  he  now  holds.      In  those  days,  e.g.,  according 

to    Dr.    Clemen's    judgment,    Galatians    was    written     after 

Romans,  quite  late  in  St.  Paul's  life.     Now  we  are  assured  on 

'  Cf.  P.  Ewald,  U.S.  p.  25,  flf  (1905). 

*  See,  e.g.,  to  this  effect  the  most  recent  account  of  early  Christian 
literature  by  Von  Soden,  Urchristliche  Liter aturgeschichte,  p.  11,  flf 

(1905)- 

'  Dr.  Deissmann  sees  no  reason  to  doubt  the  authenticity  of  all  the 
y  Epistles  which  have  come  down  to  us  as  St.  Paul's,  although  he  admits 
that  the  Pastorals  still  present  some  difficulties  (cf.  Evangelium  und 
Urchristentum,  1905). 


RECENT   LITERATURE  $01 

the  same  authority  that  Galatians  is  the  earliest  Epistle  which 
the  Apostle  wrote.  Are  we  listening  now  to  the  "  scientific  " 
or  to  the  "  apologetic  "  Clemen  ?  What  guarantee  can  there 
possibly  be  that  a  writer  who  thus  completely  alters  his 
standpoint  with  regard  to  an  Epistle,  so  important  for  the 
chronology  of  St.  Paul's  life  and  for  the  development  of  his 
doctrine,  may  not  confess  himself  equally  wrong  with  regard 
to  other  vital  points  in  the  Apostle's  career  ? 

There  are  other  details  in  Clemen's  inquiry  which  stand 
out  for  us  as  of  very  considerable   importance.      We  find, 
e.g.,  that    he    places    St.    Paul's   conversion    within    a    year, 
possibly  in  the  same  year,  as   the  death  of  Jesus.       It  is 
quite   true   that   in   his  attempt  to   account  for  the   fact  of 
the    Apostle's   conversion  he   falls  back  upon    explanations 
which   have   been   suggested   again   and    again,   and    which 
certainly   are    not  supported    by    St.   Paul's   own    language, 
as   we   endeavoured    to    show    in  an   earlier   lecture.^       The 
importance   of   thus    bringing    the    two    events,    the    death 
of  Jesus  and  the  conversion  of  Paul,  into  such  close  juxta- 
position  scarcely   needs    to  be   insisted   upon.      The   author 
of  Supernatural  Religion,  in  the  latest  edition  of  his  book, 
speaks  of  St.   Paul  as  having  been  converted  by  a  vision 
seen  many  years  after   the   death  of  Jesus.      But  we  have 
already   referred    to   the    different   view    held    by    Harnack 
and  others.      And  the  same  thing  may  be  said  if  we  take 
into    account    the    most   recent    German    literature.       Thus 
Wernle  speaks  of  Paul   becoming  a  Christian  Apostle  not 
long    after    the    death    of   Jesus.^       Bousset    refers    to    the 
tradition   which    places    the   conversion   quite   close    to   the 
death   of  Jesus,   and   Von    Dobschiitz   speaks  of   the   same 
event  as  taking  place  perhaps  eighteen  months  and  at  the 
latest  five  years  after  the  death  of  Jesus.^ 

'  Lecture  IX. 

^  Die  Quellen  des  Lebens  Jesu,  p.  4  (1904). 

'   Was  wissen  wir  von  Jesus?  p.  18,  and  Jesus,  p.  6  (1904);  Von 
Dobschiitz,  Das  a^ost.  Zeitalter,  p.  8  (1905). 


502     TESTIMONY  OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

But  there  is  more  to  be  said  in  this  connection.  Bousset 
points  out  that  St.  Paul  was  in  a  position  to  have  intercourse 
with  the  oldest  generation  of  Christians,  and  Clemen  lays 
special  stress  upon  the  notice  of  Andronicus  and  Junias  in 
Rom.  xvi.  ']}  They  were  evidently  no  obscure  Christians, 
and  yet  they  must  have  embraced  the  Christian  faith  at 
an  earlier  date  than  St.  Paul  himself,  as  he  describes  them 
as  those  "  who  were  in  Christ  before  me."  But  if  this  was 
so,  then  it  follows  that  before  St.  Paul's  conversion  men  and 
women  were  related  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth  by  a  close  and 
living  tie :  they  were  "  in  Christ "  ;  and  there  is  no  hint  that 
such  a  phrase  meant  to  them  anything  else  or  less  than  what 
it  meant  to  St.  Paul.  But  the  nearer  we  are  able  to  carry 
back  the  existence  of  such  a  belief  to  the  death  of  Jesus, 
the  more  wonderful  and  surprising  does  it  become. 

Dr.  Pfleiderer,  in  his  recent  book  on  the  Early  Christian 
Conception  of  Christ,  would  discriminate  (p.  i6)  between 
the  belief  of  the  Jewish  Christian  community  from  the 
beginning  and  the  belief  which  prevailed  later  in  Gentile 
Churches,  and  which  was  derived  from  St.  Paul.  But  if 
words  are  to  retain  any  significance,  the  import  of  the 
phrase  "  in  Christ "  as  it  is  applied  to  Andronicus  and 
Junias  must  have  been  recognised  from  the  very  beginning 
of  the  Christian  community  before  St.  Paul  joined  its 
ranks.  And  we  have  to  ask  ourselves  how  such  a  belief 
could  have  grown  up  in  so  short  a  time,  a  belief  which 
involved  so  much,  and  testified  to  a  union  so  intimate 
between  the  believer  and  Christ.  For  there  is  good  reason 
to  believe  that  when  St.  Paul  speaks  of  Andronicus  and 
Junias  as  his  kinsmen,  he  means  that  they  were  Jews. 

'  Paulus,  i.  350.  On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  noted  that  Dr. 
Zahn,  in  his  recent  article  "  Paulus  der  Apostel,"  in  the  3rd  edit,  of 
Herzog's  Realencyclopadie,  Heft  141,  p.  68  (1904),  places  St.  Paul's 
conversion  in  35  A.D.,  and  considers  that  "the  new  Chronology" 
which  places  the  event  in  the  year  of  the  crucifixion  makes  Rom. 
xvi.  7  meaningless. 


RECENT   LITERATURE  503 

Closely  connected  with  this  question  of  the  early  date 
of  St.  Paul's  conversion  is  that  of  the  Apostle's  acquaint- 
ance with  Jesus.  One  inference,  at  all  events,  follows 
from  the  notice  we  have  just  been  considering  with  regard 
to  Andronicus  and  Junias,  viz.  that  if  St.  Paul  had  not 
known  Jesus,  he  must  have  been  brought  into  very  early 
and  close  familiarity  with  those  who  were  fully  acquainted 
both  with  Him  and  His  teaching.  Reference  was  made 
to  this  subject  in  an  earlier  lecture ;  but  a  recent  French 
work  by  Maurice  Goguel  deals  with  it  at  very  considerable 
length.^ 

No  doubt,  as  this  writer  remarks,  we  can  come  to  no 
certain  decision  in  the  matter,  and  he  regards  the  ex- 
planations of  the  much-disputed  2  Cor.  v.  16  as  too 
hypothetical  to  justify  any  definite  conclusion.  He  quotes 
the  names  of  some  distinguished  critics  both  on  the  affirma- 
tive and  on  the  negative  side ;  but  his  sympathies  are 
evidently  with  those  who  hold  that  in  any  case  there 
could  have  been  no  close  or  lengthy  contact  between  Paul 
and  Jesus,  or  there  would  have  been  some  reference  to 
it  in  the  Apostle's  letters.  Moreover,  if  St.  Paul  had 
known  much  of  Jesus,  the  decided  probabilities  are  that 
he  would  have  taken  part  against  Him,  and  we  should 
have  learnt  something  of  all  this  from  the  Epistles  in 
which  Paul  so  pointedly  states  that  he  had  persecuted 
the  followers  of  Jesus.  The  inference,  then,  that  if  the 
Apostle  had  seen  Jesus  he  could  not  have  really  known 
Him,  or  have  come  into  close  contact  with  Him,  Goguel 
regards  as  lessening  the  importance  of  the  question  we 
are  considering.  But  we  shall  see  that  if  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
and  Saul  of  Tarsus  never  met  in  Jerusalem,  the  latter  may 
have  learnt  much  about  the  teaching  and  the  life  of  his 
future   Master,  as   Goguel   very  distinctly  allows. 

I   spoke  in  an    earlier   lecture   of  the   manner   in    which 
1  LA^dtre  Paul  et  Jesus  Christ  {igz  pages),  p.  14  (1904). 


504    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

more  than  one  recent  Life  of  fesus  in  Germany  shows  that 
much  more  may  be  said  than  is  often  admitted  in  favour 
of  the  view  that  St.  Paul  possessed  no  small  knowledge  of 
the  earthly  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus.  But  since  the  pub- 
lication of  the  books  to  which  reference  was  then  made, 
fresh  literature  of  the  same  kind  claims  attention.  One  of 
the  most  recent  and  popular  Lives  of  Jesus  is  that  which 
we  owe  to  Dr.  P.  W.  Schmidt,  of  Basle.  He  points  out 
that  Paul  was  probably  not  in  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of 
the  crucifixion,  or  the  self-accusations  which  we  find  in  his 
Epistles  would  have  contained  some  acknowledgment  of 
his  share  in  the  actual  guilt  of  the  death  of  Jesus.^  But, 
apart  from  this,  Dr.  Schmidt  is  evidently  in  agreement  with 
H.  Holtzmann's  fesus  und  Paulusf  in  which  it  is  noted  that 
the  virtues  which  Paul  associates  with  his  "  heavenly  man  " 
are  entirely  in  accordance  with  those  which  in  the  Gospels 
are  ascribed  to  the  historical  Jesus,  viz.  obedience,  humility, 
unselfishness,  peaceableness,  righteousness,  truthfulness. 
Dr.  Schmidt  further  acknowledges  St.  Paul's  evident  acquaint- 
ance with  some  of  the  sayings  and  modes  of  speech  which 
are  known  to  us  in  the  Gospels,  and  he  cites  in  his  list  the 
references  which  we  have  already  noted  to  the  Roman, 
Corinthian,  and  other  Epistles.^ 

Another  popular  life  of  Jesus  is  that  by  Professor  Furrer 
of  Zurich,  so  well  known  for  his  geographical  studies  in 
connection  with  the  Holy  Land.  His  lectures  on  our  Lord's 
earthly  life  were  delivered  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
people,  and  however  much  we  may  find  wanting  in  them, 
they  are  remarkable  as  an  honest  and  reverent  attempt  to 
help  men  and  women   to  a  realisation  of  the  picture  of  the 

'  Die  Geschichte  fesu,  ii.  66  (1904). 

■■*  Protestatitische  Monatschrift,  1900,  pp.  463-8. 

^  Amongst  less  familiar  references,  Schmidt  regards  2  Cor.  i.  17  = 
Matt.  V.  37,  Rom.  ix.  33  =^  Matt.  xxi.  42,  Rom.  xiv.  i2  =  Matt.  xii.  36. 
In  I  Thess.  iv.  15-17  and  in  i  Cor.  xi.  2^  he  prefers  to  see  information 
derived  from  special  revelation.    See  u.s.  pp.  67-8. 


RECENT   LITERATURE  505 

historical  Jesus  presented  to  us  in  the  New  Testament. 
Furrer  lays  stress  upon  the  fact  that  our  oldest  witness  is 
St.  Paul,  and  that  the  Apostle  evidently  knew  much  more 
of  the  historical  Jesus  than  we  gather  from  his  letters. 
From  such  a  notice  as  Gal.  iii.  1,  in  which  St.  Paul  speaks 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  openly  set  forth  crucified  among  the 
Galatians,  we  may  infer  that  the  Apostle  knew  many  details 
of  the  sufferings  of  Christ.  He  had  evidently  made  careful 
inquiries  as  to  the  descent  of  Jesus,  and  speaks  of  him  as 
being  beyond  all  doubt  of  the  seed  of  David  (Rom.  i.  3). 
He  possesses  exact  information  as  to  the  institution  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  (i  Cor.  xi.  23-6).  He  is  able  to  discrimi- 
nate in  social  life  between  circumstances  with  regard  to 
which  he  had  received  a  positive  command  from  the  Lord, 
and  those  with  regard  to  which  he  had  not.  He  exhorts  his 
Corinthian  brethren  by  the  meekness  and  gentleness  of  Christ 
(2  Cor.  X.  i.),  and  in  Furrer's  view  we  owe  the  marvellous 
Psalm  of  Love  in  i  Cor,  xiii.  i  to  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of 
the  character  of  the  historical  Jesus.  And  we  are  reminded 
that  St.  Paul  had  many  opportunities  of  gaining  a  rich 
knowledge  both  of  the  life  and  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in 
his  persecution  of  the  Christians  and  in  his  later  intercourse 
with  Barnabas  and  Peter.  This  insistence  upon  St.  Paul's 
acquaintance  with  the  historical  Jesus  is  the  more  notable 
because  Dr.  Furrer  also  insists  upon  the  Apostle's  constant  ^ 
realisation  of  the  glorified  Christ,  who  lived  in  his  soul,  to 
whom  he  looked  up  in  holy  joy,  and  the  quite  secondary 
place  which  all  human  communication  as  to  the  Gospel 
occupied  in  his  consciousness. 

Let  us  turn  to  another  instance  of  German  literature,  of 
which  I  have  already  spoken — Dr.  Weinel's  account  of 
St.  Paul  and  his  work  in  the  series  entitled  Lebensfragen} 
Weinel  assures  us  that  St.  Paul  attached  no  value  to  the 
Christ  according  to  the  flesh,  and  that  Jesus  as  a  human 
*  Paulus,  Der  Mensch  und  sein  Werk,  p.  244  (1904). 


5o6    TESTIMONY   OF  ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

being  has  scarcely  any  importance  for  him  ;  the  Apostle  is 
only  interested  in  the  present  work  of  Jesus  in  believers,  and 
in  His  death.  Even  when  he  speaks  of  the  gentleness,  the 
love,  the  truthfulness  of  Christ,  he  is  thinking  of  Him  as 
the  living  and  exalted  Lord.  But  on  the  next  page  Weinel 
»/ assures  us  that  we  must  not  conclude  that  St.  Paul  knew 
nothing  of  Jesus.  On  the  contrary,  the  Apostle  remains 
the  best  and  surest  witness  for  the  historical  personality  of 
Jesus,  and  his  witness  can  only  be  got  rid  of  if  we  declare 
all  his  letters  fictitious.  According  to  his  own  words, 
St.  Paul  had  learnt  from  the  Apostles  themselves  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  life  of  Jesus';  and  although  from  a  religious 
point  of  view  he  is  chiefly  concerned  with  the  exalted  and 
living  Christ,  yet  we  find  everywhere  traces  of  his  acquaint- 
ance with  the  accounts  of  Jesus  as  we  afterwards  find  them 
written  in  our  Gospels.  It  is  true  that  Weinel  considers 
that  St.  Paul  knew  nothing  of  a  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus  ; 
but  he  notes  that  the  Apostle  refers  to  the  descent  of  Jesus 
from  David,  to  the  fact  that  He  was  born  under  the  law, 
and  that  mention  is  made  of  the  brothers  of  the  Lord.  So, 
too,  the  traits  in  the  character  of  Jesus,  which,  as  Weinel 
believes,  St.  Paul  ascribes  to  Him  as  a  heavenly  being,  stand 
in  no  contradiction  to  His  appearance  as  a  man.  When 
St.  Paul  speaks  of  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus,  he  speaks 
of  the  impression  which  the  person  of  Jesus  had  made 
upon  His  disciples :  not  purity  alone  beamed  forth  from 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  goodness,  love,  self-surrender, 
self-sacrifice. 

In  this  connection  it  is  noticeable  that  whilst  Weinel  holds 
that  St.  Paul,  in  speaking  of  our  Lord  becoming  poor,  is 
thinking  primarily  of  the  laying  aside  of  divine  glory,  yet 
such  a  statement  only  receives  its  full  meaning  if  Jesus 
belonged,  as  a  man,  not  to  the  noble,  but  to  the  poor  ;  so 
that  in  this  case  also  Paul  corroborates  the  tradition  of 
the    Gospels.      Moreover,   according   to    Weinel,   we   find  in 


RECENT   LITERATURE  507 

St.  Paul  not  merely  references  to  the  words  and  commands 
of  Jesus,  but  actual  quotations  of  them.  Of  course,  in  this 
connection  the  most  significant  passage  is  the  account  of  the 
institution  of  the  Eucharist  ;  but  Weinel  is  also  able  to  refer 
to  St.  Paul's  prohibition  of  divorce  in  the  significant  words, 
"  But  unto  the  married  I  give  charge,  yea,  not  I,  but  the 
Lord,"  and  to  the  Apostle's  appeal  to  another  ordinance  of 
the  Lord,  that  they  which  proclaim  the  Gospel  should  live 
of  the  Gospel  ;  whilst  we  are  justly  reminded  that  in  other 
places  St.  Paul  says,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  has  received 
"  no  command  "  of  the  Lord.  At  the  same  time  Weinel 
rightly  emphasises  the  fact  that  St.  Paul  shows  himself 
the  truest  disciple  of  Jesus,  in  that,  like  his  Master,  he 
speaks  of  love  as  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  and  sees  in  this 
law  of  Christ  a  law  of  greater  breadth  and  freedom  than 
the  law  of  the  Old  Covenant. 

If  we  turn  again  to  the  second  popular  series  of  German 
books  which  we  have  previously  mentioned,  we  do  not  find 
such  lengthy  references  to  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of  the 
historical  Jesus.  But  still  we  do  find,  on  the  whole,  a 
considerable  recognition  of  such  knowledge.  Thus  Dr. 
Vischer  writes  that,  in  distinction  to  the  disciples  who  had 
had  intercourse  with  Jesus  during  His  ministry,  and  in 
distinction  to  the  circles  from  which  the  Gospel  tradition 
first  proceeded,  any  notices  of  the  life  of  Jesus  fall  sur- 
prisingly into  the  background  in  the  case  of  St.  Paul. 
We  meet  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles  with  surprisingly  few 
reminiscences  of  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus  in  His 
lifetime,  although  we  do  find  numberless  explanations  of 
the  significance  and  the  reason   of  His  death. 

But  Vischer  puts  forward  one  or  two  solutions  of  this. 
In  the  first  place  we  may  notice  that  in  the  greater  number 
of  his  letters  St.  Paul  is  writing  to  Churches  in  which  he 
had  already  worked  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  and  in  all 
cases  he  is  writing  to  Churches  in  which  the  Gospel  was 


\y 


508    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

already  known.  We  cannot  therefore  draw  the  conclusion 
that  St.  Paul  had  at  first  announced  only  that  as  the  subject 
of  his  preaching  which  he  deals  with  in  his  letters  ;  and  he 
adds  that  we  have  also  positive  indications,  as  in  i  Cor. 
xi.  23,  that  St.  Paul  had  made  fuller  communications  to 
his  Churches  as  to  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus  than  we  can 
gather  from  his  Epistles  alone.  But  as  the  first  disciples, 
starting  from  their  own  experiences,  saw  in  the  death  and 
resurrection  the  conclusion  and  the  crowning  of  the  life  of 
their  Master,  and  as  in  their  representation  of  Christ  the 
recollection  of  the  life  of  Jesus  with  his  never-to-be-forgotten 
words  and  deeds  was  of  the  greatest  concern,  so,  too,  St 
Paul  started  from  his  own  experiences  of  the  offence  of  the 
Cross  and  of  the  heavenly  vision,  and  for  him  the  Gospel 
was  the  message  of  a  heavenly  Being  who  had  come  down 
from  heaven  to  suffer  and  to  die.^ 

Another  little  book  in  the  same  series  purports  to  give, 
as  we  have  seen,  an  account  of  Paul.  Dr.  Wrede,  to  whom 
we  owe  this  account,  points  out  many  differences  between 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  that  of  His  Apostles.  But  at 
the  same  time  he  quite  emphatically  admits  that  many 
rules  and  directions  of  Jesus  were  undoubtedly  known  by 
tradition  to  St.  Paul.^  All  these  points  of  contact,  however, 
are  of  secondary  importance,  although  they  are  not  denied. 
According  to  Wrede,  Jesus  knew  nothing  of  that  which  for 
St.  Paul  was  everything.  He  attributed,  e.g.,  no  such 
significance  to  His  death  as  that  which  St.  Paul  attributed 
to  it.  St.  Paul,  in  fact,  was  not  a  disciple  or  servant  of  an 
historical  and  human  Jesus,  but  of  another  Being  altogether  ; 
and  he  could  invest  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with  such  high 
attributes  because  he  had  never  known  Him  Paul,  in  fact, 
was  the  person  who  first  introduced  into  Christianity  the 
ideas  which  made  it  a  religion   of   redemption,  and   which 

'  Die  Paulusbriefe,  p.  15  (1904). 
*  Paulus,  p.  91  (1905). 


RECENT   LITERATURE  509 

have  made  it  most  influential  and  most  powerful.      No  wonder        . 
that  Wrede  asks  us  to  believe  that  the  influence  of  Jesus  /fe«-'ifr  ^ 
was    stronger — not    better — than    that    of    Jesus.       Surely 
1/  Dr.    Deissmann    speaks    much    more    accurately    and    more 
convincingly  when  he  tells  us  that  Paul  was  not  "  the  second 
after  Jesus,  but  the  first  '  in  Christ,' "  and  that  although  St. 
Paul  refers  to  the  exalted  Christ  in  many  passages  which  are 
usually  referred  to  the  earthly  Christ,  yet  the  earthly  life  of 
Jesus  has  for  Paul  such  significance  that    it   endowed    the    " 
glorified    Christ    with    the    personal    characteristics    of    the 
earthly — a     sure     protection     against    any     false     step    of 
the  religious  fancy.^ 

Before  we  pass  from  the  consideration  of  this  remarkable 
little  series  of  German  books,  a  word  may  be  added  as  to 
Dr.  Wernle's  statements  in  his  account  of  the  sources  of  the 
life  of  Jesus.  He  sees  in  St.  Paul  the  oldest  historical  and 
literary  witness  of  Christianity,  and  yet  the  most  scanty  of 
all  sources  for  our  knowledge  of  Jesus.  Paul  laid  little 
stress  upon  the  details  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  which  could  only 
be  known  to  him  through  tradition  :  the  Jesus  whom  he 
preaches  is  the  Son  of  God,  who  came  down  from  heaven  to 
die  and  to  rise  again  for  us  ;  all  else  recedes  into  the  back- 
ground. Yet  even  Wernle  allows  that  Paul  had  some  ,  . 
knowledge  of  the  earthly  Jesus  ;  he  can  refer,  e.g.,  to  our 
Lord's  words  in  His  decision  against  divorce  (i  Cor.  vii.  10), 
and  our  Lord's  words  in  His  ratification  of  the  claim  of  the 
Apostles  to  the  support  of  the  Church  (i  Cor.  ix.  14);  he 
can  give  us  an  account  of  the  Last  Supper  on  the  night  of 
the  betrayal  (i  Cor.  xi.  23),  and  he  can  group  together  the 
witnesses  for  the  resurrection  (i  Cor.  xv.  4)  ;  and  Wernle 
makes  the  further  important  remark  that,  although  we 
cannot  say  so  for  a  certainty,  yet  Paul  as  a  missionary  may 

*  Evangelium.  und  Urchristentum  in  Beitrdge  zur  Weiterenf- 
wicklung  der  Religion,  pp.  117,  122  (1Q05)  ;  and  cf.  also  Theologische 
Rundschau,  April,  1905,  p.  136,  Art.  "Jesus  und  Paulus,"  i. 


5IO    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL  TO   CHRIST 

well  have  given  the  newly  converted  Christians  more 
information    concerning  Jesus  in  his  oral  teaching/ 

In  a  certain  sense,  Wernle  also  acknowledges  that  Paul 
gives  us  more  than  the  most  exact  information.  We  hear 
from  him  that  a  man  Jesus,  in  spite  of  His  death  on  the 
Cross,  was  able  to  confer  such  power  through  that  death  that 
a  Paul  was  conscious  that  he  was  conquered,  redeemed,  blessed 
by  Him,  and  that  his  own  life  and  the  whole  world  might  be 
divided,  as  it  were,  into  two  parts — without  Jesus,  with  Jesus. 
Explain  it  as  we  may,  says  Wernle,  here,  at  all  events,  is  a 
fact  which  compels  our  astonishment. 

In  this  statement  of  Wernle  we  have  an  example  of 
a  characteristic  feature  of  much  of  recent  German  criticism, 
viz.  the  acknowledgment  of  the  marvellous  impression  made 
by  Jesus  upon  those  around  Him  and  upon  His  greatest 
Apostle,  St.  Paul.  We  find  marked  evidence  of  this  in 
many  writers  of  the  highest  repute,  and  it  might  be  easily 
illustrated  from  the  pages  of  Bousset,  Deissmann,  Von 
Dobschiitz,  H.  Holtzmann,  Von  Soden,  and  others.^ 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  to  books  which  come  to  us  from 
other  sources.  Within  the  last  year  two  French  writers, 
representing  two  very  different  schools  of  thought,  have 
treated  of  the  subject  with  which  we  are  immediately  con- 
cerned. The  Abbe  Jacquier,  of  Lyons,  in  his  learned 
Histoire  des  Livres  du  Noicveau  Testament  (1905),  has  given 
us  a  summary  of  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of  the  historical  Jesus,^ 

1  Die  Quellen  des  Lebens  Jesu,  p.  5  (1904),  in  the  series  Religions- 
geschichtliche  Volksbiicher. 

2  See,  e.g.,  Bousset,  Was  wtssen  wir  von  Jesus?  p.  72  ;  Von  Dob- 
schiitz, Die  urchristlichen  Gemeinden,  p.  272  ;  Von  Soden,  Die  wieh- 
tigsten  Fragen  im  Leben  Jesu,  p.  1 1 1  ;  Deissmann,  Beitrdge  zur 
weiterentwicklung  der  Christlichen  Religion,  p.  89,  ff. 

^  Pp.  22-4.  After  pointing  out  that  we  can  only  expect  in  St.  Paul 
an  oral  tradition,  as  he  had  not  been  an  actual  witness  of  the  scenes, 
and  only  tells  us  what  he  had  received  (i  Cor.  xv.  3),  and  after  explain- 
ing that  the  letters  of  St.  Paul  naturally  contain  only  allusions  to  facts 
and  teaching  upon  which  the  Apostle  had  previously  dwelt,  Jacquier 
mentions  the  references  to  our  Lord's  earthly  circumstances  in  Rom.  i. 


RECENT   LITERATURE  511 

and  to  Maurice  Goguel,  representing  apparently  a  very- 
liberal  French  position,  we  owe  a  more  lengthy  treatment  of 
the  same  subject/  If  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  latter,  we 
come  across  statements  of  no  little  interest  Goguel  rightly 
lays  stress  upon  the  fact  that  incidental  circumstances 
occasion  St.  Paul  to  give  us  the  information  which  we  gather 
from  him.  The  Apostle,  e.g.,  supplies  us  with  a  full  account 
of  the  institution  of  the  Eucharist  ;  but  if  the  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances of  the  Church  of  Corinth  had  not  drawn  forth 
the  Apostle's  declaration,  it  might  easily  be  argued  that  he 
knew  nothing  of  the  Eucharist,  since  he  does  not  definitely 
mention  it  elsewhere,  or  that  at  any  rate  he  attached  but 
little  importance  to  it. 

In  treating  of  the  references  to  the  character  of 
Christ,  Goguel  evidently  inclines  to  refer  the  expression 
"who  knew  no  sin"  (2  Cor.  v.  21)  to  the  pre-existent 
Christ,  but  at  the  same  time  he  sees  in  this  passage, 
together  with  Rom.  i.  4,  a  proof  that  Paul  recognised  the 
perfect  holiness  of  Christ.  And  this  proof  is  further  con- 
firmed by  the  way  in  which  the  Apostle  speaks  to  the 
Romans  (cf  v.  18)  of  the  obedience  of  Christ.  The  eflficacy 
of  the  death  of  Jesus  was  so  great  because  it  was  not  the 
death  of  a  sinner,  like  the  death  of  any  other  man,  but  the 

3,  Gal.  iv.  4,  Rom.  ix.  4-5,  2  Cor.  viii.  9,  Phil.  ii.  5  ;  to  His  character 
(2  Cor.  X.  I,  Rom.  xv.  3,  2  Cor.  v.  21).  He  next  gives  in  detail  the 
references  to  our  Lord's  death  and  resurrection,  as,  e.g.,  Gal.  iii.  i,  i 
Cor.  V.  7,  I  Tim.  vi.  13,  i  Cor.  xi.  23,  i  Cor.  ii.  8,  i  Thess.  ii.  15,  Gal.  iii. 
13  ;  to  the  fact  that  He  died  for  our  sins,  that  He  was  buried  and  rose 
again  the  third  day  (Rom.  v.  6,  vi.  5,  9,  i  Cor.  xv.  3-4)  ;  and  to  the  as- 
cension jn  I  Tim,_iii^jL6.  Jacquier  also  gives  a  list  of  the  appeals  made 
by  St.  Paul  to  our  Lord's  words  (cf.,  e.g.,  Matt.  xix.  6,  Mark  x.  9=  i  Cor. 
vii.  10,  Matt.  X.  9-11,  Luke  x.  7  =  1  Cor.  ix.  14,  Luke  x.  16=1  Thess.  iv. 
8,  Matt,  xxiii.  i3  =  Gal.  iv.  17,  Luke  vi.  28=1  Cor.  iv.  12-13,  Matt.  v. 
39-40=1  Cor.  vi.  5,  Matt.  xvii.  20=1  Cor.  xiii.  2,  Luke  xii.  33  =  1  Cor. 
xiii.  3,  Luke  vi.  28  =  Rom.  xii.  14. 

^  L' A^potre  Paul  ef  Jesus  Christ,  pp.  69-99  (^9°4)-  (The  volume 
contains  nearly  400  pages.)  These  two  French  books  are  mentioned  at 
some  length,  not  only  for  their  own  importance,  but  also  because  so 
much  space  has  been  given  to  German  literature. 


512     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

death  of  one  perfectly  holy  ;  and  His  obedience  was  not  only 
an  obedience  in  the  face  of  death,  but  the  perfect  obedience  of 
a  whole  life.  Goguel  also  notes  that  when  Paul  commands 
his  readers  to  be  imitators  of  him,  as  he  also  is  of  Christ, 
(i  Cor.  xi.  I  ;  cf.  Col.  i.  lo),  it  is  evident  that  such  an 
exhortation  implies  the  idea  of  the  absolute  perfection  of 
Christ,  and  he  rightly  concludes  that  the  impression  which 
we  gain  from  St.  Paul's  Epistles  of  the  personal  character 
of  Jesus  is  exactly  that  which  meets  one  in  reading  the 
Synoptists,  and  that  Drescher  is  correct  in  maintaining  that 
St.  Paul  has  selected  precisely  those  traits  of  character  in 
Jesus  which  are  also  specially  emphasised  in  the  Gospels. 

With  regard  to  the  institution  of  Holy  Baptism,  Goguel 
makes  some  important  observations.  It  is  probable  that 
Paul  knew  of  the  institution  of  this  sacrament  by  Christ,  or 
that  he  at  least  protected  its  observance  by  the  authority 
of  Christ.  We  cannot  conclude  from  the  Apostle's  words 
(i  Cor.  i.  i6)  that  he  regarded  baptism  as  a  rite  of  human 
origin  and  devoid  of  importance.  If  this  had  been  so,  the 
Apostle  would  not  have  tolerated  it  at  all,  but  would  have 
counted  it  among  the  weak  and  beggarly  elements  which  he 
combats  so  forcibly.  And  to  this  negative  argument  we  can 
add  a  positive  one  from  the  place  which  baptism  occupies  in 
the  symbolic  language  of  St.  Paul  (cf  Rom.  vi.  3,  i  Cor.  xii. 
13,  Gal.  iii.  27).  From  these  considerations  we  are  justified 
in  maintaining  at  least  the  probability  that  St.  Paul  sup- 
ported the  practice  of  baptism  by  the  authority  of  Christ. 

Time  does  not  allow  us  to  give  the  many  references  which 
Goguel  rightly  finds  in  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  to  the  death 
and  passion  of  Jesus  ;  but  we  may  note  that  he  regards 
these  references  as  very  precise  and  definite  in  relation  to 
the  mode,  the  time,  the  circumstances,  and  the  instruments 
of  the  Saviour's  sufferings. 

But  in  speaking  of  the  resurrection  it  is  very  note- 
worthy that  Goguel  condemns  it  as  a  grave  error  to  class 


RECENT   LITERATURE  513 

the  appearances  of  Christ,  which  Paul  mentions  in  i  Cor. 
XV.  1-4,  as  merely  subjective.  Goguel  argues,  with  the 
German  writer  Paret  (so  well  known  in  earlier  days  of 
criticism  for  his  full  treatment  of  the  relationship  between 
Paul  and  Jesus),  that  St.  Paul  in  this  passage  contents 
himself  with  an  allusion  to  the  accounts  which  he  had 
previously  given  to  the  Corinthians,  and  that  these  need  by 
no  means  to  be  limited  to  a  simple  "  was  seen  "  {a)(f)6r]).  He 
also  draws  a  distinction,  with  Paret  and  others  (see  Lecture 
IX.),  between  the  manner  in  which  the  Apostle  speaks  of 
these  appearances  of  the  risen  Christ  in  i  Cor.  ix.  i,  xv.  4-8, 
and  the  visions  or  revelations  of  the  Lord  in  2  Cor.  xii.  i,^ 
and  he  also  points  out  that  a  bodily  resurrection  of  Christ 
seems  to  be  demanded  by  St.  Paul's  argument  in  i  Cor.  xv., 
in  which  he  is  combating  the  doubts  which  had  arisen  in  the 
Corinthian  Church  upon  the  subject  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead. 

In  considering  the  words  of  Jesus  and  St.  Paul's  acquaint- 
ance with  them,  Goguel  distinguishes  between  actual  quota- 
tions which  are  extremely  rare  and  simple  allusions.  We 
may  select  one  or  two  of  these  latter  which  are  of  special 
interest.  In  the  words  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Romans  (xiv.  14), 
"  I  am  persuaded  in  the  Lord  Jesus  that  there  is  nothing 
unclean  of  itself,"  it  is  quite  possible  that  St.  Paul  is 
simply  expressing  a  personal  conviction  which  he  has  "  in 
the  Lord "  ;  but  Goguel  holds  that  in  this  case  we  should 
expect  the  Apostle  to  have  spoken  of  Christ  rather  than  of 
Jesus,  since  by  the  expression  "  the  Lord  Jesus,"  Paul 
designates  rather  the  historical  Christ.  He  therefore  inclines 
to  the  view  that  Paul  is  thinking  of  such  words  as  those 
which  Jesus  utters  in  St.  Matt.  xv.  1 1  :  "  Not  that  which 
enters  into  the  mouth  defiles  the  man."      Here,  then,  St.  Paul 

'  See,  to  the  same  effect,  amongst  recent  writers,  Dr.  Zahn,  Art. 
"  Paulus  der  Apostel  "  in  the  new  edition  of  Yi&xzo<g' s  Realencycloplidie, 
Heft  141,  p.  72  (1904). 

33 


514     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

enunciates  a  broad  principle  which  was  already  contained 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  In  i  Thess.  ii.  12  the  thought  of 
the  call  of  God  into  His  kingdom  recalls  the  words  of  the 
parable  of  the  marriage  feast  (Matt.  xxii.  3,  Luke  xiv.  16). 
And  in  this  same  Thessalonian  Epistle,  especially  in  the 
latter  chapters,  he  finds  frequent  reminiscences  of  our  Lord's 
words  in  the  Gospels,  and  of  words  similar  to  them.  It  is 
important  also  to  note,  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  remarks  of 
an  earlier  lecture,  that  the  verses  21,  26  of  i  Cor.  i.,  in  which 
St.  Paul  speaks  of  the  wisdom  of  this  world  which  knows 
not  God,  are  regarded  as  a  reminiscence  of  the  words  of 
Jesus  in  Matt.  xi.  25.  Goguel  draws  attention  to  the  fact 
that  I  Corinthians  is  the  Epistle  which  presents  us  with  the 
greatest  number  of  points  of  contact  between  St.  Paul  and 
his  Master,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he  adduces 
from  nearly  every  chapter  some  instance  which  goes  far 
towards  justifying  this  remark. 

We  have  already  drawn  attention  to  the  fact  that  St.  Paul 
never  quotes  directly  any  words  of  Jesus  in  relation  to  his 
disputes  with  Jewish  Christians  and  the  requirements  of  the 
law,  but  Goguel  is  able  to  refer  to  the  remark  of  Paret  that 
the  Apostle  must  at  least  have  been  certain  that  no  direct 
command  of  Jesus  could  be  quoted  against  him.  But 
although  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of  the  life  and  words  of  Jesus 
was  so  full,  and  whilst  there  is  no  difficulty  in  supposing  that 
he  could  have  gained  information  about  them  before  his 
conversion  in  his  inquiries  relating  to  the  Christians  whom 
he  persecuted,  no  less  than  in  his  after-intercourse  with 
St.  Peter  and  others  (Gal.  i.  18-19),  Goguel  again  agrees 
with  Paret  in  maintaining  that  the  gospel  of  Paul  commences 
at  the  point  at  which  the  life  of  Jesus  ends  according  to  the 
flesh.  The  events  of  the  life  of  Jesus  had  for  St.  Paul  no 
religious  interest,  for  the  object  of  his  faith  is  exclusively 
the  glorified  Christ.  At  the  same  time  Goguel  guards  him- 
self against  any  separation  of  the  historical  from  the  glorified 


RECENT   LITERATURE  515 

Christ,  and  he  quotes  with  approval  the  conclusion  of  Dr. 
Schmoller,  that  the  actual  information  which  St.  Paul  gives 
us  as  to  the  life  of  Jesus  presupposes  a  much  greater  and 
fuller  knowledge.^ 

There  is  one  other  recent  book  from  Germany  which  is 
so  full,  and  in  many  respects  so  suggestive,  that  it  ought  to 
receive,  if  time  allowed,  much  more  than  a  brief  notice. 

Dr.  Alfred  Resch,  so  well  known  for  his  AgrapJia  and 
other  theological  works,  has  lately  given  us  a  most 
elaborate  account  of  the  mutual  relations,  as  he  conceives 
them,  between  Paulinism  and  the  Logia  of  Jesus.^  In  this 
book  Dr.  Resch  claims  the  fullest  acquaintance  with  the 
life  and  teaching  of  Jesus  on  the  part  of  St.  Paul.  We 
have,  e.g.,  a  list  of  references  given  us  in  St.  Paul's  Epistles 
to  the  rpost  important  events  in  the  life  of  Jesus  extending 
from  His  baptism  to  His  ascension.^  But  whilst  some- 
thing may  be  said  for  some  of  these  references,  and  an 
allusion  to  the  transfiguration  might  be  possible  in  such 
a  passage  as  2  Cor.  iii.  18,  it  must  be  confessed  that  in 
some  cases  the  supposed  reference  is  very  fanciful.  We  are 
asked,  e.g.,  to  find  a  reminiscence  of  our  Lord's  words  in 
Gethsemane  (Mark  xiv.  '^'j'),  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul, 
"  that  whether  we  wake  or  sleep  we  may  live  together 
with  Him"  (i  Thess.  v.  10).  In  a  later  part  of  his  book  ^ 
Dr.  Resch  gives  his  reasons  for  believing  that  St.  Paul 
was  fully  acquainted  with  our  Lord's  Virgin  birth.  The 
representation  of  our  Lord  as  absolutely  sinless,  as  the 
second  Adam,  the  head  of  a  new  humanity,  presupposes 
<,^"  birth   of   Jesus    different    from    the    propagation   of   the 

^  Schmoller,  Art.  Die  geschichtliche  Perso7i  J^esu  nach  den  pauli- 
nischen  Schriften,  pp.  656-705,  in  Shcdie7i  und  Kritiken,  1894. 

^  Der  Paulinismus  tend  die  Logia  yesu  (656  pages),  1904. 

'  Pp.  203,  354,  528.  If  no  reference  is  made  to  any  of  our  Lord's 
miracles,  Dr.  Resch  refers  to  St.  Paul's  own  testimony  (2  Cor.  xii.  12) 
as  showing  that  the  miraculous  power  which  the  disciple  possessed 
must  have  been  also  possessed  by  the  Master. 

"  Pp.  619-20. 


5i6     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

old    humanity,   and    points    back    to    a   primitive    tradition 
of   the    Virgin   birth   which    Resch    finds    in   his    Gospel  of 
the    Infancy    {^Kindheits-evangeliuni).       In     this    knowledge 
\  I  on    St.    Paul's  part  Dr.   Resch  sees  an    explanation   of  the 
fact  that  St.  Paul's  Christology  never  raises    contradictions 
and  that  his  conception  of  the  Christ  did  not  expose  him 
to  a  struggle  in  this  respect  with  the  early  believers.      But 
it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  this  attempt  of  Dr.   Resch  to 
restore  a  KindJieits-evangeliuvi  has  proved  very  successful/ 
although,   of   course,   one    might   fully   agree   with    him    in 
the   inference   which    he    draws    from    St.    Paul's    language 
concerning   our   Lord    as    the    Head    of   a    new    humanity. 
In    this    recent    work    Dr.    Resch    strongly    maintains     his 
previous  view  that  St.  Paul  was  in  possession  of  a  primi- 
tive Gospel,  the   Hebrew  Logia  of  Jesus,  for  his  knowledge 
of  his   Master,   although   no  doubt   oral   tradition   and    the 
nearness  of  the  Apostle  to  the  events  of  the   Gospel  story 
must   also   be   taken    into   account."      How    St.    Paul    came 
into    possession    of   these    Logia    we    do    not    know  ;     but 
Resch    strongly    supports    the    conjecture    that    they    were 
known    to    him    at    a    very    early   date    in    a    written    form, 
and    that    only    thus    can    we    explain    the    fact    that    the 
Apostle   did   not  go   to   Jerusalem    to  the    headquarters    of 
the  Twelve  upon    his   conversion,   but   into   the  solitude  of 
Arabia.      It   is   further   suggested    that    Ananias    may   have 
placed    some    such    written    information    in    the    hands    of 
St.   Paul.' 

With  regard  to  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of  the  words  of 
Jesus,  Dr.  Resch  finds  numberless  parallels  between  the 
Apostle's  writings  and  the  great  discourses,  as  also  the 
parables  of  Jesus.  In  some  cases,  no  doubt,  St.  Paul's 
language  is  very  similar  to  that  in  the  Gospels.      We  may 

'  Dr.  Sanday,  "Jesus  Christ,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  i.  644. 
-  U.S.  pp.  25,  533. 
3  11.S.  pp.  534-5. 


RECENT    LITERATURE  517 

take  as  a  single  instance  the  similarity  between  the  language 
of  the  Parable  of  the  Sower  in  the  Synoptists  and  St. 
Paul's  words  in  i  Thess.  i.  6 ;  but  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  any  distinct  reminiscence  of  the  familiar  parable 
is  present,  and  in  many  cases  which  Resch  adduces  the 
criticism  of  Vischer  seems  fully  justified,  viz.  that  very 
often  the  supposed  agreement  consists  simply  in  the  fact 
that  the  same  word  occurs  in  Paul  and  in  the  Synoptists, 
and  often  in  a  very  different  sense,  as,  e.g.,  in  the  alleged 
parallel  between  Gal.  iv.  13-14  and  Matt.  xxvi.  41.^ 
'/  But  in  spite  of  so  much  that  is  fanciful,  we  gladly 
welcome  Dr.  Resch's  strong  belief  that  the  word  "  in- 
spiration "  may  well  be  applied  to  the  thoughts  of  a  man 
who  was  full  of  the  Spirit,  who  took  his  stand,  as  it  were, 
upon  the  historical  Jesus,  whilst  he  lived  in  constant 
intercourse   with   the  exalted   Christ  (2   Cor.   xiii.   3). 

If  we  turn  back  for  a  moment  to  the  writer  from  whom 
we  started.  Dr.  Clemen,  we  find  that,  with  most  of  the 
"  advanced  "  critics  of  Germany,  he  regards  St.  Paul's  interest 
as  centred  around  the  two  facts  of  the  death  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus.  But  nevertheless  he  favours  the  view  that  the 
Apostle  had  seen  Jesus,  and  that  he  may  have  been  in 
Jerusalem  at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  death.  He  holds  that 
frequently  in  the  Epistles  we  find  words  of  Jesus  which  go 
back  to  oral  tradition,  a  dependence  upon  the   preaching  of 

'  Theologische  Rundschau,  p.  142  (April,  1905).  Dr.  Resch  gives 
us  a  long  list  of  Agrapha,  p.  vi.,  and  their  supposed  parallels  in 
St.  Paul's  Epistles.  These  Agrafha  have  been  subjected  to  a  severe 
examination  by  Mr.  Ropes,  and  passages  like  i  Cor.  vii.  31,  xi.  18, 
I  Thess.  v.  21,  Eph.  iii.  15,  iv.  26-7,  are  not  regarded  by  him  as 
containing  any  sayings  of  Jesus.  On  the  other  hand,  he  finds  in 
I  Thess.  iv.  16-17  a  genuine  Agraphon,  while  as  to  i  Cor.  xi.  24  he 
is  doubtful  (Z)/^  S:pruche  Jesu,  pp.  135,  m3  [1896]).  See  forfurther 
criticism  Sturm,  Der  Apostel  Paulus  tmd  die  evatzgelische  Uberlie- 
ferung,  1897  ;  Church  Quarterly  Review,  October,  1890  ;  and  a  recent 
article  "Agrapha,"  by  Mr.  Ropes,  in  Hastings'  B.D.,  v.,  where  the 
literature  is  given.  The  present  writer  may  refer  to  the  Wihiess  of 
the  Epistles,  pp.  114-32. 


5i8     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

Jesus,  and  a  correct  acquaintance  with  the  figure  of  Jesus. 
Surely  all  this  is  remarkable  enough  when  we  consider  the 
very  different  standpoint  of  the  two  critics,  Dr.  Resch  and 
Dr.  Clemen.^ 

In  the  third  series  of  these  lectures  we  were  able  to  touch 
upon  some  of  the  historical  facts  connected  with  St.  Paul's 
missionary  journeys.  And  here  again  Clemen's  book 
presents  us  with  much  that  is  of  interest  both  on  account  of 
its  fulness  and  of  the  constant  admission  of  little  points  of 
accuracy  in  St.  Luke's  narrative.  To  some  of  these  we 
have  already  referred.  In  a  pamphlet  published  during  this 
present  year.  Dr.  Clemen  gives  us  a  summary  of  his  views 
on  each  of  the  important  episodes  familiar  to  us  in  the  Acts, 
and  it  is  of  no  little  interest  to  note  how  much  he  admits  as 

^  Two  recent  books  in  England  and  America  may  also  be  here 
referred  to,  as  they  both  help  to  show  us  that  St.  Paul's  knowledge  of 
the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus  must  have  been  in  all  probability  very 
considerable.  One  is  entitled  SL  PauPs  Conceptio7i  of  the  Last 
Thtf2gs  (1904),  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Kennedy.  The  writer  is  fully  alive  to  the 
many  and  varied  influences  with  which  St.  Paul  may  have  come  into 
contact ;  but  he  rightly  emphasises  (p.  55)  the  manner  in  which,  as  he 
believes,  the  Apostle  was  powerfully  influenced  by  the  Apostolic  tradition 
of  the  eschatological  teaching  of  Jesus  ;  the  most  striking  instance  he 
finds  in  2  Thess.  ii.  See  also  pp.  167  ff  for  other  parallels,  to  which 
reference  has  been  made  in  an  earlier  lecture.  Dr.  Kennedy  does 
admirable  service  in  pointing  out  that  in  marked  contrast  with  the 
prophetic  descriptions  of  the  Day  of  the  Lord  St.  Paul  scarcely  ever 
paints  a  picture  of  the  Parousia,  and  in  passages  where  we  might  expect 
the  use  of  vivid  imagery  it  is  entirely  absent,  and  he  rightly  sees  in  this 
lack  of  pictorial  drapery  another  instance  of  the  reinarkable  sobriety 
and  self-restraint  of  the  Apostle  in  dealing  with  those  eschatological 
events  which  gave  free  play  to  the  most  extravagant  fancies  of  Jewish 
Apocalyptic  writers,  p.  192.  See  also  pp.  97-102.  On  p.  262  Dr.  Ken- 
nedy adds  some  qualifications  of  the  view  entertained  by  many 
scholars  that  in  the  interval  between  i  and  2  Corinthians  St.  Paul 
advanced  to  a  new  and  more  spiritual  view  of  resurrection.  The  other 
book  comes  to  us  from  America,  The  Story  of  St.  Paul,  by  Professor 
Bacon.  On  p.  16  he  expresses  his  belief  that  Paul  had  had  no  personal 
contact  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  he  may  have  been  absent  from  Jeru- 
salem, or  his  student's  days  may  not  have  begun,  but  with  all  his  bitter 
regrets  the  Apostle  never  reproaches  himself  with  any  part  in  the  plots 
against  Jesus.     But  on  p.  53  we  read  that  the  same  Paul  who  resorted 


RECENT   LITERATURE  519 

historical  in  more  or  less  degree.^  Thus  he  points  out  that 
it  is  going  much  too  far  to  regard  as  unhistorical  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  Acts  that  Paul  preached  first  in  the  syna- 
gogues to  his  own  countrymen  before  he  turned  to  the 
Gentiles.  This  acknowledgment  is  of  peculiar  importance  in 
the  face  of  recent  allegations  against  the  historical  character 
of  the  Acts  in  relation  to  the  Apostle's  action. 

With  regard  to  the  incident  of  the  Nazirite  vow  in 
Acts  xxi.,  which  has  sometimes  caused  such  difficulty, 
Dr.  Clemen  admits  that  he  is  prepared  to  retract  his 
own  former  doubts  against  the  historical  character  of  the 
incident,  although  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that  he  still 
declines  to  admit  another  incident  closely  connected  with 
St.  Paul's  stay  in  Jerusalem,  vis.  the  manner  in  which 
the  Apostle  designated  himself  (xxiii.  6)  as  a  Pharisee 
before  the  Sanhedrin.  Again  and  again  in  Clemen's  pages 
we  come  across  the  admission  that  even  in  the  narrative 
of  the  first  part  of  the  Acts  some  kernel  of  historical  fact  is 
plainly  discernible,  although,  as  we  might  expect,  he  attaches 
a  higher  historical  value  to  the  second  part  of  the  same 
book.  He  further  frankly  admits  that  whereas  in  some 
cases  difficulties  occur  in  points  of  the  narrative,  these  same 
difficulties,  on  closer  inspection,  become  a  witness  for  the 
truthfulness  of  the  account.  If,  e.g.,  it  occasions  surprise  at 
first  sight  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  should  be  regarded  as 
gods  on  account  of  the  one  miracle  of  healing  the  lame  man 

to  Peter  to  hear  his  story,  laToprjo-at  Krjcjiav,  cannot  have  regarded  himself 
as  fully  equipped  whilst  he  was  ignorant  of  the  life  and  teaching  of 
Jesus  and  of  fundamental  Christian  doctrine.  How,  indeed,  could  he 
have  been  a  leader  of  persecution  against  the  sect,  or  have  cast  his 
vote  against  them  on  a  life  and  death  issue,  without  knowing  some- 
thing of  their  history  and  teaching  ?  And  on  p.  54  it  is  well  stated 
that  St.  Paul's  bloody  persecution,  "  even  unto  foreign  cities,"  implies 
even  at  that  time  a  Christology  which  to  the  eyes  of  the  Pharisee 
encroached  upon  the  prerogatives  of  God. 

^  Dz'e  A;postelgeschichte  im  Lichte  der  neiceren  text-qiiellen  und 
historisch-kritischen  Forschungen,  p.  40  ff  (1905). 


520     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

at  Lystra,  we  remember  that  the  same  thing  is  related  of 
Apollonius,  whose  home  in  Tyana  was  but  some  few  hours 
distant,  and  that  the  mention  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  before 
the  city  is  one  which  meets  us  in  connection  with  many 
other  places,  as,  e.g.,  Claudiopolis. 

As  an  evidence  of  correctness  in  small  details  Clemen 
emphasises  the  fact  that  in  Acts  xiv.  6  Iconium  is  men- 
tioned in  a  way  which  is  inconsistent  with  its  common 
description  as  a  city  of  Lycaonia.  But  it  would  seem 
that  the  inhabitants  of  Iconium  always  regarded  themselves 
as  belonging  to  Phrygia,  and  so  a  notice  which  might 
seem  at  first  sight  to  betray  inexactness  is  in  reality  a  proof 
that  in  the  first  missionary  journey  we  are  dealing  with  a 
narrator  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the  local  and  social 
conditions.^  In  the  second  missionary  journey  Clemen 
points  to  the  evidence  of  the  inscriptions  in  relation  to 
the  trade  of  Lydia,  and  to  the  peculiar  title,  "  politarchs," 
given  to  the  magistrates  of  Thessalonica,  whilst  he  finds 
no  difficulty,  but  rather  another  indication  of  accuracy, 
in  the  two  titles  given  to  the  magistrates  at  Philippi.  So, 
again,  another  accurate  touch  is  to  be  found,  he  thinks,  in 
the  prominence  assigned  to  the  women  in  Philippi,  Thessa- 
lonica, and  Beroea,  which  is  so  strictly  in  accordance  with 
the  position  enjoyed  by  women  elsewhere  in  Macedonia. 

In  the  local  details  connected  with  Athens  Clemen  holds 
the  view,  supported  so  strongly,  as  we  have  seen,  by  Professor 
Ramsay,  that  St.  Paul  was  taken  not  to  Mars'  Hill,  but  to 
the  Court  of  the  Areopagus  in  the  Stoa  Basileios.  And  with 
regard  to  the  inscription  to  an  unknown  God,  he  frankly 
admits  that,  although  elsewhere  we  find  inscriptions  of  altars 
dedicated  to  unknown  gods,  yet  there  is  no  difficulty  in  sup- 
posing that  one  particular  altar  would  be  dedicated  in  the 
terms  which  St.  Luke  describes,  especially  when  we  remember 

'  The  same  arg-ument  is  elaborated  fully  by  Professor  Ramsay  (see 
Art.  "  Iconium,"  Hastings'  B.D.,  ii.  443). 


RECENT   LITERATURE  521 

that  in  Rome  we  have  Set  deo  sei  decs.  The  Latin  names  of 
Titius  Justus  and  Crispus,  which  meet  us  in  Corinth,  are  also 
quite  in  accordance  with  all  that  we  know  from  other  sources 
of  the  Corinth  of  the  time. 

Some  little  space  is  devoted  by  Clemen,  as  we  might 
naturally  expect,  to  the  many  points  of  interest  which 
the  inscriptions  confirm  in  relation  to  St.  Paul's  visit  to 
Ephesus.  i\nother  detail  of  accuracy  of  a  somewhat  different 
kind  is  noticeable.  Amongst  the  many  "  shrines "  of  the 
goddess  which  have  been  found  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Ephesus,  none  have  been  discovered  of  silver  ;  these 
"  shrines "  are  always  made  of  terra-cotta.  This  at  first 
sight  might  seem  surprising  ;  but,  as  Clemen  points  out,  in 
agreement  with  Ramsay,  it  is  exactly  what  we  might  expect, 
since  the  silver  "  shrines  "  would  have  been  quickly  melted 
down  on  account  of  their  monetary  value.  If  we  ask  why 
at  Ephesus  the  Asiarchs  are  represented  by  St.  Luke  as 
favouring  St.  Paul,  Dr.  Clemen  provides  us  an  answer  in 
the  belief  that  the  Asiarchs,  in  their  anxiety  to  promote 
the  cult  of  the  emperor,  would  welcome  anything  that 
tended    to    depreciate    the    worship    rendered    to    Artemis. 

In  concluding  his  summary,  Clemen  endorses,  with  so  many 
writers  of  various  schools,  the  many  notes  of  accuracy 
contained  in  the  account  of  St.  Paul's  shipwreck.  In  doing 
so  he  refers  to  the  help  received  in  working  out  these  notes 
of  accuracy  from  James  Smith  of  Jordan  Hill,  and  in  more 
recent  days  by  the  Germans  Breusing  and  Von  Gorne, 
both  of  whom  write  with  a  full  technical  knowledge.  At 
the  same  time  he  rightly  condemns  the  strictures  passed  by 
Mommsen  on  St.  Luke's  use  of  the  term  the  sea  of  Adria 
(Acts  xxvii.  27),  and  refers  to  the  geographer  Ptolemy  as 
endorsing  the  application  of  the  term  current  no  doubt  in 
St.  Luke's  day  to  the  sea  between  Sicily  and  Crete. 

Dr.  Clemen  attaches  a  high  value  to  the  Acts  for  a 
representation  of  the  life  of  St.   Paul,  and   it  is  noteworthy 


D-^- 


TESTIMONY    OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 


that  he  ascribes  the  authorship  of  the  "  We  "-sections  to  St. 
Luke.  He  passes  in  review  the  claims  of  Timothy,  Silas, 
Titus,  but  he  does  so  only  to  reject  them.^  It  is  also 
noteworthy  that  he  acknowledges  that  in  some  parts  at 
least  of  the  book  we  find  indications  of  the  writing  of  a 
medical  man,  and  that  so  far  his  own  countryman,  Dr. 
Zahn,  and  the  Englishman,  Dr.  Hobart,  have  proved  their 
case.  In  one  passage  Dr.  Clemen  is  constrained  to  feel 
the  force  of  this  medical  language.  In  Acts  xxviii.  3  we 
read  that  a  viper  fastened  on  St.  Paul's  hand  at  Malta. 
Here  we  have,  as  Clemen  admits,  two  medical  terms,  one 
used  in  describing  the  viper  {Oiqpiov),  and  the  other  in  the 
effect  of  its  attack  on  St.  Paul,  viz.  that  nothing  amiss 
{aTOTTOv)  had  happened  to  him.  But  the  proof  we  are 
assured  only  belongs  to  the  section  in  question,  and  we 
cannot  argue  from   it  to  the  whole  book. 

But  if  we  can  find  medical  terms  not  only  in  the  "  We  "- 
sections  and  in  other  parts  of  the  book,  and  if,  in  addition 
to  the  evidence  from  medical  terms,  the  language  and  ex- 
pressions of  the  "  We  "-sections  are  closely  related  to  the 
language  and  expressions  of  the  rest  of  the  book,  it  seems 
at  least  probable  that  one  person  was  the  author  of  the 
whole.  If  so,  we  can  understand  that  he  would  leave 
the  "  We  "-sections  as  they  are,  and  that  he  thus  retains  the 
first  person  plural  to  mark  the  incidents  at  which  he  was 
himself  present'  But  we  find  it  difficult  to  believe  that 
another   and   a   careful   writer    (as   the    author   of  the   Acts 

'  It  is  noticeable  that  Von  Soden  in  his  chapter  on  the  Acts  in  his 
recent  Urchristlichc  Literaturgeschichte,  p.  126,  quite  admits  that  Luke, 
the  companion  of  St.  Paul,  may  have  been  the  author  of  the  Reiscbericht 
in  its  original  form,  and  that  in  spite  of  all  deductions  he  regards  Acts 
as  a  book  of  imcomparable  value.  Schmiedel  and  Van  Manen  alike 
favour  the  claims  of  Luke  as  the  probable  author  of  the  journey 
narrative  (see  Critical  Questions,  p.  75)> 

-  As  against  the  strictures  of  Professor  Bacon  in  his  recent  Story  of 
St.  Paul,  p.  156,  to  the  effect  that  the  author  of  the  Diary  must  have 
been  a  Jew,  see  Church  Quarterly  Review,  October,  1901,  p.  17,  and 


RECENT   LITERATURE  523 

evidently  was,  whoever  he  was)  would  have  introduced  the 
"  We  "-sections,  revising  them  as  he  chose,  and  yet  leaving 
them  as  they  are.  Clemen  is  evidently  puzzled,  and  he 
actually  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  in  spite  of  his  care 
elsewhere,  the  author  may  have  left  these  sections  in  their 
present  form  out  of  carelessness. 

But  it  is  time  to  turn  to  a  brief  consideration  of  the 
religious-historical  method  in  theology,  which  is  being 
so  widely  applied  in  Germany  to  the  facts  of  the  Creed  and 
to  the  origin  of  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church.  And  here 
Dr.  Clemen  may  again  be  of  service,  for  he  has  recently 
issued  a  remarkable  pamphlet  on  the  subject,  in  which  he 
refuses  to  go  to  the  lengths  of  the  more  "  advanced"  critics 
amongst  his  countrymen.^  In  this  connection  we  may  recall 
that  Clemen,  in  his  account  of  St.  Paul's  life,  insists  upon  the 
fact  that  the  Apostle  was  above  all  things  a  Jew,  and  that 
his  Epistles  show  this  in  his  Rabbinical  methods  of  argument 
and  in  his  profound  acquaintance  with  the  Old  Testament.' 
Whatever  other  influences  may  have  surrounded  Paul,  as, 
e.g.,  the  Stoic  atmosphere  in  Tarsus,  the  Jewish  element  was 
always  predominant,  and  no  essential  influence  was  exercised 
upon  the  Apostle's  thought  by  the  rites  and  mysteries  of 
other  religions.  Thus,  in  relation  to  the  supposed  influence 
of  the  religion  of  Mithra,  Clemen  insists  upon  two  points 
which  are  of  special  value.  Reference  was  made  in  a 
former  lecture  to  the  fanciful  idea  of  Dr.  H.  Holtzmann  that 
the  religion  of  Mithra  became  known  to  the  Romans  through 
their  intercourse  with  Cilician  priests.  Dr.  Clemen  points 
out  that    although  Cilicia,  the  home  of   St.   Paul,  was  the 

Critical  Questions,  p.  75.  In  the  same  article  in  the  Church  Quarterly 
Review  a  detailed  examination  is  made  of  Acts  xvi.  10-17,  and  the 
identity  of  language  with  the  rest  of  the  book  is  fully  shown. 

1  Die  religionsgeschichtliche  Methode  in  der  Theologie  (1904). 

-  See,  also,  on  the  predominance  in  St.  Paul  of  Jewish  thought  and 
influence,  Vischer,  Die  Paulusbriefe,  pp.  17-18  (1904)  ;  and  Wrede, 
Paulus,  pp.  6,  47  (1905). 


524    TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

first  place  in   the  empire   which    was    connected    with    the 
Mithra  worship,  yet  that  worship  had  certainly  not  exercised 
any    great    influence    in     Cilicia.        About     loo     A.D.     Dio 
Chrysostom     knows    nothing    of    the    Mithraic    worship    in 
Tarsus  ;  and  Clemen   rightly  infers  that  its  influence  upon 
the  earliest  Christianity  must  have  been   in  any  case  very 
small     indeed.       In    dealing    with    this    same    religion    of 
Mithra,     Dr.     Clemen     draws    attention    to    the    fact    that, 
whilst  in  the  representation  of  a  sacred   meal  the  initiated 
are    described    as  wearing    masks    representing    the  nature 
of   Mithra  under  different  attributes,  we  are  nowhere  told 
that  they   have  "  put  on  "   the  god,  as  Christians    are  said 
to   have  "  put  on  "   Christ   (Gal.  iii.  27).      Pfleiderer,  in  his 
recent    book,    makes   much  of  a  supposed   likeness   of   ex- 
pression, but  it  is  evident  that   Clemen  by  no  means  takes 
a    similar  view.       As   one   reads   this  valuable  brochure  of 
Clemen,    one    is    inclined    to    think    that    Pfleiderer    might 
often  have  been  more  careful  to  follow  his  own  caution,  viz. 
that  in   the    study   of  other    religions   we  should  mark  not 
only  points  of  similarity  to  Christianity,  but  also  points  of 
diversity.     This  canon  of  sound  criticism  has  been   rightly 
followed  by  Von  Dobschiitz  in  his  recent  article  on   Sacra- 
ment and  Symbol  in  Early  Christianity.      Paul,  he  points  out, 
does  not  speak  as  if  he  was  a  javcrraywyo?,  that  is  a  teacher 
initiating   his  converts    into   mysteries   resembling  those   so 
popular  in  the  heathen  world   around  him  ;  and  in  another 
place  he  rightly  sees  in   the  monotheistic  piety  of  St.  Paul, 
rooted  as  it  was  in  its  pure  and  spiritual  character  in  the  Old 
Covenant,  a  protection  against  the  intrusion  of  pagan  ways 
of  thinkin<i  and  against  the  introduction  of  ma<jical  rites  and 


secret  initiations. 


Another  writer  to  whom  frequent  mention  has  been  made, 

'  Sakrament  und  Symbol  im  Urchristentum,  pp.  1-40,  in  Sttidicn 
und  Kritiken,  i.  (1905)  ;  and  Nosgen,  Die  Rcligiotisgcschichfe  und 
das  Neuc  Testament,  pp.  943  flf,  in  Netic  kirchliche  Zeitschrift  {\(pd^. 


RECENT   LITERATURE  525 

Dr.  Paul  Feine,  has  also  dwelt  at  considerable  length  upon 
the  subject  before  us  in  another  popular  series  of  German 
books  which  are  specially  designed  to  treat  of  Christianity 
in  its  relation  to  the  modern  spirit/      Feine  points  out  that 
as  St.  Paul's  conception  of  Christian  baptism  is  quite  un- 
Jewish  and  has   no  analogy   in   the    Old    Testament,    men 
sought  for  analogies  in  other  religions,  and  claimed   to  have 
found  them  in  the  old   Egyptian  worship.      Osiris  is  killed, 
and  comes  to  life  again,  and  so  the  belief  arose  that  one  could 
attain  through  death  to  eternal  life  by  becoming  united  with 
this  God  who  dies  and  rises  again.      The  knowledge  of  this 
worship,  it  is  argued,  may  have  become  widespread  in  the 
East,  and  thus  have  gained  the  attention  of  the  Jews,  through 
whom    it    passed    to    St.    Paul,   and    through    St.    Paul    to 
Christianity.      But  Feine   does   not  express   himself  a  whit 
too  strongly  when  he  says  that  such  assertions  misconceive 
the  whole   character   of  early    Christianity.      This  is  not  a 
religion  of  myth,  but  of  living  and  personal  experience.      In 
the   Gospel   new   powers  are   seen    to  be  at  work,  and  the 
person    of  Jesus    Christ    transcends    in   might   of   religious 
efficacy  all  other  appearances  in  history.      And  in   Christian 
baptism  Paul  has  symbolised  his  own  Christian  experience  ; 
and  in  this  personal  experience,  and  in  the  manner  in  which 
the  Apostle  is  wont  to  distinguish   between    his   own   pre- 
Christian  and  Christian  consciousness  as  between  day  and  night, 
truth  and  falsehood,  new  and  old,  life  and  death,  we  have  all 
the  elements  which  we  require  for  the  understanding  of  the 
Apostle's  teaching  as  to  baptism,  and  there  is  no  need  to  refer 
to  any  questionable  parallels  with  a  religion  with  which  it 
cannot  be  proved  that  Paul  had  any  acquaintance  whatever.^ 

'  Das  Christentum  Jesu  und  das  Chrisfentum  der  Apostel  in 
ihrer  Abgrenzung  gegen  die  Religionsgeschichte,  in  the  series 
Christentum  und  Zeitgeist ,  p.  56  (1904). 

^  Feine,  u.s.  p.  56,  and  see  also  Von  Dobschiitz,  u.s.  p.  23,  and  the 
supposed  influence  of  the  myth  of  Osiris.  Feine  also  refers  to  the 
supposed  connection  between  Mithraism  and  the  Christian  Eucharist ; 


526     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.    PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

No  one,  in  fact,  can  study  even,  in  the  most  cursory- 
manner,  these  alleged  parallels  without  seeing  how  ludicrously 
inadequate  they  often  become.^  Take,  as  a  single  instance, 
the  ascension  of  our  Lord  which  the  Church  has  so  recently 
celebrated.  Dr.  Pfleiderer,  in  his  recent  book,  informs  us 
that  ascension-myths  may  be  found  in  manifold  shapes. 
Hebrew  legend,  it  is  true,  knows  of  only  two  assumptions — 
that  of  Enoch  and  that  of  Elijah  ;  but  in  Greek  legend  such 
assumptions  are  of  very  frequent  occurrence,  and,  according 
to  the  original  significance  of  these  legends,  the  whole  man, 
both  body  and  soul,  was  directly  translated  into  the  other 
world  of  bliss,  "  without  passing  through  the  gate  of  death."  ^ 
But  where  is  there  any  analogy  between  these  Jewish  and 
Greek  assumptions  and  the  ascension  of  our  Lord  into 
heaven  ? "  Our  Lord  did  pass  through  the  gate  of  deathy 
and  no  fact  is  more  certain  than  that  the  Cross  was  regarded 
as  the  only  way  to   His  crown.'^"      But,  further,  whilst  our 

but  he  does  not  discuss  the  question,  as  he  considers  that  the  influence 
of  Mithraism  cannot  be  traced  sufficiently  early  to  render  such  an 
inquiry  at  all  apposite.  The  remarks  of  Dr.  S.  Dill  may  well  be  com- 
pared with  those  of  Feine  :  "Futile  attempts  have  been  made  to  find 
parallels  to  Biblical  narrative  or  symbolism  in  the  faint  and  faded 
legend  of  Mithra  recovered  from  his  monuments.  .  .  .  But  one  great 
weakness  of  Mithraism  lay  precisely  here,  that  in  place  of  the  narrative 
of  a  divine  life,  instinct  with  human  sympathy,  it  had  only  to  offer  the 
cold  symbolism  of  a  cosmic  legend  {Roman  Society  fro7n  Nero  to 
M.  Aurclhis,  p.  622  [1904]). 

'  See  Science  and  Sophistry ,  by  F.  Blass,  E.T.,  in  Expository  Times y 
October,  1904. 

-  Early  Christian  Co7iceptio7i  of  Christ,  p.  106. 

^  Bishop  Westcott,  in  speaking  of  the  religions  of  India,  remarks, 
"  The  assumption  of  humanity  by  Vishnu  is  in  appearance  only,  and  the 
human  nature  is  wholly  laid  aside  when  Krishna,  slain  by  a  random 
shot  of  the  hunter  Jara  (that  is,  decay,  old  age)  returns  to  the  Great 
Being  "  {The  Gospel  of  Life,  p.  1 56).  The  same  writer  forcibly  reminds 
us  that  it  was  not  until  he  had  ceased  to  be  the  champion  of  men  and 
had  consumed  in  the  fires  of  Oeta  whatever  showed  his  fellowship  with 
men,  that  Hercules  was  received  into  the  mansions  of  the  Gods  {The 
Gospel  of  the  Resurrectiofi,  p.  116). 

■•  Arnold  Meyer,  in  his  lengthy  examination  of  our  Lord's  resurrection, 
Die  Auferstehung-  Christi,   1905    (in   the   series   already  mentioned 


RECENT   LITERATURE  527 

Lord's  risen  and  glorified  life  was  reached  through  death,  it 
is  equally  certain  that  Jewish  expectancy  could  never  have 
created  the  conception  of  a  suffering  Messiah/ 

No  doubt,  in  what  has  been  called  the  most  authoritative 
document  of  patristic  Judaism,  the  Targujji  of  Jonathan 
(fourth  century  A.D.),  much  of  the  language  as  to  the  Servant 
of  God  in  Isa.  Hi.  13-liii.  12  is  referred  to  the  Messiah, 
but  the  remarkable  thing  is  that  those  verses  which  speak 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  Servant  are  referred  not  to  the 
Messiah  at  all,  but  to  Israel  as  a  nation  :  "  It  is  no  mere 
rhetoric  to  say  that  from  the  Apostolic  period  to  the  present 
day,  the  Cross  has  been  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling  block."  ^ 
Recent  writers,  indeed,  have  insisted,  that  there  were  con- 
under  the  title  of  Lebensfrage7i),  apparently  thinks  that  the  writer  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel  makes  our  Lord  appear  to  seven  of  His  disciples 
after  His  resurrection  (John  xx.  i),  because  the  number  seven  was  so 
frequently  symbolical  in  Oriental  religions,  p.  167.  Yet  it  is  not  only 
very  difficult  to  understand  the  consummate  art  which  a  forger  must 
have  possessed  to  concoct  such  a  story  as  that  in  John  xxi.,  but  it  is 
very  strange  that  no  reference  should  be  made  to  this  number  seven  if 
any  symbolical  meaning  was  attached  to  it  by  the  forger.  In  the 
Apocryphal  Gospel  of  Peter,  e.g.,  the  soldiers  affix  seals  to  the 
sepulchre,  and  we  are  told  that  seven  seals  were  so  affixed,  Meyer 
also  strongly  maintains  (pp.  23,  213)  that  St.  Paul's  list  of  our  Lord's 
appearances  was  meant  to  be  exhaustive,  and  that,  as  no  reference  is 
made  to  John  xxi.,  the  appearance  there  mentioned  must  be  dismissed 
as  unhistorical ;  but  as  we  have  already  noted  (Lecture  XIV.)  there  is 
not  the  slightest  proof  that  St.  Paul's  list  was  exhaustive. 

'  See  a  remarkable  article,  "  The  Poverty  of  Christ,"  by  Dr.  J.  M. 
Robertson,  in  the  Ex;positor,  p.  332,  May,  1905. 

^  See  Muirhead,  The  Eschatology  of  Jesus,  p.  203  (1904).  The  same 
writer  remarks,  "  No  doubt,  in  the  early  Christian  centuries,  one  finds 
in  Jewish  circles — elicited  probably  by  controversy  with  Christians — 
the  idea  of  a  dying  Messiah,  and  even  the  idea  of  merit  available  for 
others  in  the  righteous  sufferer.  But  a  glance  at  the  passages  where 
these  ideas  appear  shows  the  fallaciousness  of  the  hope  of  finding  in 
them  points  of  contact  with  Christian  doctrine.  Thus  in  Fotirth  Ezra 
(75-96  A.D.)  the  Messiah  dies,  but  His  death  is  only  an  incident  in  an 
eschatological  programme  which  assigned  to  the  Messiah  no  other 
function  than  that  of  living  for  400  years  with  the  godly  previous  to  a 
final  judgment  executed  by  Jehovah  Himself."  See  also  to  the  same 
effect  Stanton,  Art.  "Messiah,"  Hastings,  B.D.,  iii.  354. 


528     TESTIMONY   OF   ST.   PAUL   TO   CHRIST 

ceptions  present  in  Judaism  in  the  days  of  St.  Paul  which 
might  easily  have  led  him  to  entertain  the  views  which  he 
held  about  our  Lord's  Person,  and  to  regard  Him  as  a  pre- 
existent  heavenly  Being. ^ 

But  the  offence  of  the  Cross  had  not  ceased,  and  the 
question  may  still  be  asked,  how  Paul  could  see  in  a 
crucified  blasphemer  the  Lord  of  his  life,  and  the  Saviour 
of  the  world.  For  the  testimony  of  St.  Paul  to  Christ 
is  twofold.  He  finds  in  Him  not  only  his  own  redemption 
from  sin,  but  a  ransom  for  all  ;  he  recognises  His  power 
not  only  in  his  own  inmost  soul,  as  he  brings  every 
thought  into  captivity  to  His  law,  but  he  sees  this  power 
at  work  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men  and  women 
all  around  him  ;  he  is  sure  that  this  power  cannot  be 
restrained  by  any  barriers  of  social  or  national  life,  by  any 
limits  of  age  or  time.  And  as  his  vision  passes  beyond  the 
fashion  of  this  world,  the  Cross  in  which  he  had  gloried  is 
still  the  central  pledge  of  redeeming  love  ;  he  sees  all  things 
reconciled  to  God  by  the  blood  of  the  Cross.  What  was 
it  that  had  thus  transfigured  the  emblem  of  degradation  and 
shame  until  it  became  a  manifestation  of  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  ?  The  Cross  was  a  revelation  of  life  in  the  midst  of 
death,  of  a  life  which  had  loosed  the  pangs  of  death,  because 
it  could  not  be  holden  of  it ;  the  revelation  of  a  love  from 
which  St.  Paul  was  persuaded  that  neither  things  present, 
nor  things  to  come,  nor  powers,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  could 
separate  him,  the  revelation  of  "  the  love  of  God  which  is 
in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord." 

'  See,  e.g.y  Wrede,  Paulus,  p.  86,  1905. 


INDEX 


Abbott,  E.  A.,  251,  274-276 
Abbott,   T.  K.,  79,  85,  86,  89,  95, 

100,  loi,  106,  455 
Acts  of  the  Apostles — 

Accuracy,  35,   149-162,  354,  355, 

357,    359.    370.   374,    378,    379, 
380,  381,    384,    388,    392,    400, 
402  ff,  412,  421-430,  519-523 
Addresses,  169-173,  361-369,  375, 
385.  389,  391,  415-421,  425,  429, 
431-434,  477-481,  509,  519 
Authorship,  162  ff,  522,  533 
Acts  of  Paul  and  Thekla,  38,  128, 

150 
Acts  of  Peter,  150,  151 
Aristides,  Apology  of,    11,    12,   63, 

127,  390 
Ascension  of  Isaiah,  27,  58 
Askwith,  20,  27,  28 
Avircius,  St.,  92 

Bacon,  4,  5,  27,  73,   108,   109,  119, 

150,    162-164,    212,    372,    414, 

465,  471,  518 
Baldensperger,  244 
Baljon,  8 

Barnabas,  Epistle  of,  62,  79,  95,  125 
Bartlet,  J.  V.,   29,  85,  91,  92,   220, 

301,  307,  365,  403,  427 
BasiUdes,  54,  57,  63,  97 
Belser,  35,95,  122,  124,  129,  137,  138 
Bengel,  in,  393,  450 
Bernard,  Dean,   128,  198,  270,  279, 

297,  408 
Bigg,  472 
Birmingham,   Bishop  of,   143,  202, 

223,  403 


Blass,  82,  128,  155,  159,  161,  179, 
182,  183,  307,  361,  432,  440, 
526 

Bornhauser,  342,  343,  345 

Bousset,  8,  467,  474,  494,  497,  5oi. 
510 

Canterbury,  Dean  of,  120 

Charles,  27,  58,  115,  116,  238,  239, 
242 

Chase,  35,  69,  120,  164,  173,  174, 
193,  202,  234,  253,  331,  353, 
361,  364,  374,  385,387,  391.415 

Cheetham,  468 

Cheyne,  42 

Christology,  14,  39-50,  65-72,  86, 
89,  99,  loi,  106,  109,  117  ff, 
147,  171,  173, 174,  206,  211,  212, 
215  ff,  224,  227-233,  240,  246, 
265,  271,  273,291,  327,  337,  339, 
420,  431  ff,  449-  451,  452,  471. 
473,  502,509,  516,  519,  527,528 

Chrysostom,  St.,  59,  355,  419, 
466 

Clemen,  4,  8,  13,  21,  22,  24,  29,  35, 
56,  65,  -]-],  82,  134,  150,  158, 
164,  182,  189,  191,  210,  255,  355, 
359-  360,  362,  378,  379,  400,  414, 
416,  425-427,  430,  437,  439' 
445-447,  474, 475-  497-  499,  5oo, 
517,  518,  520-524 

Clement,  St.,  of  Alexandria,  23,  37, 
58,  80,  97,  116,  127,  382 

Clement,  St.,  of  Rome,  8-10,  12, 
51,  52,  56,  61-63,  79,  94,  95, 
103,  113,  124,  125,  220,  349, 
440,  442,  499 


529 


34 


530 


INDEX 


Colossians — 

Authorship,    5,  38,  73-75,  77-86, 

91,  loi,  499 
Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  234, 
277,    316,   323,    328,    333,    339, 
345.  348,  349.464.  512;  (2)  the 
life  of  the  Church,  88,  120,  255, 
265,    349,    406,   407,   421,  433, 
441,  455,  484 
Corinthians  I. — 
Authorship,  6,  7,   10,  51-56,  266, 

500 
Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  181, 
182,  183,  185,  186,  191,  193, 
207,  208,  210,  220,  245,  249, 
250,  254,  257,  260,  317,  320, 
321,  326,  329,  336,  505,  509, 
512-514;  (2)  the  life  of  the 
Church,  88,  98,  175,  260,  274, 
278,  281,  292,  308,  391,  396, 
407,  408,  423.  441.  451.  452, 
460,  461,  463,  480 
Corinthians  II. — 

Authorship,  6,  7,  10,  56-60,  498, 

500 
Relation  to  (l)  the  Gospels,  181, 
224,    239,    278,    279,   317,   345, 

453.  503-505.  511,  515,  517; 
(2)  the  life  of  the  Church,  198, 
203,  345,  407,  408,  450.  463, 
465,  492,  494 

Dalman,  39,  40,  69,  192,  221,  231, 

235,  240,  273,  312 
Davison,  448 
Deissmann,    3,   40,    106,    158,    232, 

308,  443,  500,  509,  510 
De  Pressense,  460 
Didache,  23,  24,  54,  62,  95,  126,  418 
Dill,  S.,  448,  468,  472,  526 
Drescher,   202,  218,  254,  257,  267, 

269,  271,  340,  512 
Driver,  272 

Drummond,  J.,  4,  27,  48 
Drummond,  R.  B.,  119,  204,  216 

Ecclesiasticus,  294,  295,  303,  383 


Edersheim,  186,  222,  383 
Enoch,  Book  of,  102,  172,  240 
Ephesians — 

Authorship,   3,  5,  38,  65,  73,  87, 

94-1 1 1,  499,  500 
Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  262, 
300,    323,    328,  333,  338,   339, 

341,  347,  348,  415,  453.  517; 
(2)  the  life  of  the  Church,  88, 
120,   383,   415,    417-42X,    441, 

453.  455.  465.  467,  484.  495 
Esdras  II.,  243,  244,  527 
Evvald,  P.,  334,  344.  346,  347,  499, 

500 
Exeter,  Bishop  of,  70,  95,  loi,  103, 

205,  289,  306 

Fairbairn,  201,  202,  204 

Feine,  40,  56,  66,  68,  70,  201,  204, 
212,  216,  217,  220,  223,  225, 
233-235.  238,  241,  243,  245, 
251,  252,  269,  270,  272,  278, 
279,    287,    289,  290,  294,   316, 

321.   331.  333.   336,   345.   384. 

449,  453,  525,  526 
Findlay,  89,  loi,  102,  128,  145,  190, 

212,  330 
Friedlander,  81 
Furrer,  202,  276,  284,  504,  505 

Galatians — 

Authorship,  6,  7,  13,  15,  28-38, 
500 

Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  184, 
195,  203-205,  210,  216,  227, 
249  if,  267,  274,    280-289,  294, 

313.    333.    510.    5".    517;    (2) 
the    life   of  the    Church,    360, 

363.  364,   366,  371,  372,   374- 

376,  409.  483,  524 
Gardner,  P.,  186,  224,  255,  260,  276, 

279,  284,  305,  470,  471 
Gifford,  69,  334-366,  437 
Godet,  12 
Goguel,  290,  303,  315,  323,  503,511, 

512-515 
Gunkel,  192,  193,  282-284 


INDEX 


531 


Harnack,  3-5,  8,  10,  18,  27,  28,  41, 
53,  57.  65,  67,  71,  72,  82,  92, 
98,  122, 135,  175,  191,  201,  206, 
218,  261,  279,  299,  323,  342- 
344,  355.  371,  444,  449 

Haupt,  5,  20,  73,  75.  79.  So,  82,  85, 
86,  114,  117,  118,  341 

Heitmiiller,  284,  292 

Hermas,  97 

Hobart,  164,  522 

Hollmann,  393,  394 

Holsten,  112,  192 

Holtzmann,  H.,  8,  18,  24,  28,  82, 
124-126,  136,  156,  164,  166, 
188,  274,  282,  470,  498,  504 

Holtzmann,  O.,  203,  223,  267,  269, 
276 

Hort,  84,  95-97,  138-141.  171.  419 

Ignatius,  St.,  8,  11,  23,  24,  36,  54, 
56,  61,  80,  95,  96,  114,  123,  125, 
313.  420 

Inge,  loi,  453 

Irenaeus,  St.,  23,  24,  37,  53,  55,  63, 
80,97 

Jacquier,  23,  38,  63,  79,   82-84,  98. 

loi,  116,  124,  510,  511 
Jevons,  488 
Jubilees,  Book  of,  141 
Jiilicher,  4,  5,  18,  27,  82,  84-86,  91, 

97,  98,  100-103,  231,  343 
Justin  Martyr,  11,  24,  35,  37,  55,  61, 

80,  116,  365 

Kalthoff,  494,  499 
Keim,  191,  202,  219,  295 
Kennedy,  H.  A.,  26,  112,  219,  228, 

240,  241,  243,  288,  303,  452,  455, 

518 

Lepin,  204,  206,  295 

Liddon,  477,  493 

Lightfoot,  Bishop,  20,28,  31,  35,  36, 
38,  45,  75.83,96,  115,116,  139- 
142,  202,  233,  234,  236,  241,  243, 
381,  409,  437 


Lock,  8,  19,  20,  36,  88,  95,  100,  102, 
107,    122,    128,    133,    137,    145, 

230.    331,  437,   441,  474,   476, 

480,  499 
Loisy,  205  if,  295 
Loman,  6,  7,  35,  38,  497 

Marcion,   12,   13,  18,  23,  24,  37,  57, 

63,  64,  73,  81,  98,  113,  116,  123, 

124,  138 
Max  MuUer,  494 
McGiffert,  4,  18,  27-29,  31,  84,  123, 

129,  184,  326,  391 
Menzies,  151,  225,  336 
Meyer,  Arnold,  527,  528 
Milligan,  301,  303 
Milligan,  G.,  24 
Moffatt,  19,  21,  27,  29,  31,  73,  75, 

100,    112,    114,    118,    122     133, 

189,  191,  349,  427 
Mommsen,  151,  160,  359,  429,  521 
Muirhead,  272,  527 

Neander,  312,  345 
Nietzsche,  444,  445 
Nosgen,  202,  216,  220,  233,  251,  252, 
269,  285  335,  524 

Origen,  24,  37.  80 
Orr,  406,  438 

Paley,    10,  55,    152,    153,    171,    184, 

260,  412,  430 
Pastoral  Epistles,  121-147 

Authorship,    34-121  ff,    128,    147, 

500 
Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  309, 
311,  323,    331,    333-337,    348, 
511 ;  (2)  the  life  of  the  Church, 
143-145,    152,     153,    220,    370, 
441-444,  457,  464 
Pfleiderer,  18,  46,   66,   67,   'j'j,   82, 
90,  182,  189,  195,  197,  255,  293, 
469,  524,  526 
Philemon — 

Authorship,  7^-77,  500 
Relation  to  the  life  of  the  Church, 
74,  75,  120,442,499 


532 


INDEX 


Philippians — 

Authorship,    6,    38,  72,    89,    1 1 1- 

120,  135,   136,  500 
Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  117, 
119,    120,    323,    329,    330,    332, 
340,  453,  51 1  ;  (2)  the  life  of  the 
Church,  188,  437,  440,  441,  452, 

455.  463,  477.  490.  491 
Plummer,  59,  60,  197,  303,  333 
Polycarp,   St.,  8,  9,  11,   12,  24,  36, 

52,  53.  57,  62,  80,  95-97,  113- 

115,  123,  126,  220,  405 
Psalms  of  Solomon,  269,  270,  288, 

289,  295,  367 
Pseudo-Philo,  140 

Rackham,  180,  373,  375-377,  4i5, 
427,  440 

Ramsay,  30,  32,  33,  35,  36,  85,  86, 
92,  112,  128,  154,  156,  157,  159, 
161,  179,  197,  220,  228,  259, 
314,  356,  364,  366,  391,  397, 
405-407,  437.  438.  442.  455. 
475,  488,  491,  520 

Renan,  6,  28,  95,  191 

Rendall,  29,  252,  480 

Resch,  204,  263,  269,  515-517 

Reuss,  18,  27,  74 

Riggenbach,  245,  342,  345 

Romans — 

Authorship,    il,    32,    34,    38,    57, 

60-65 
Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  205, 
216,  218,  253,  260,  269,  289, 
311,  327,  345,  365,  366,  505, 
511,  513;  (2)  the  life  of  the 
Church,  88,  146,  255,408,  411, 
416,  420,  435,  436,  440,  442, 
450,  456,  457,  460,  461,  465. 
486,  502 

Ropes,  244,  276,  517 

Rose,  183,  249,  277,  301,  308 

Sabatier,  28,  47,  74,  82,  loi,  191, 
202,   222,    238,  251,    268,   362, 

363 
Salisbury,  Bishop  of,  263 


Salmon,  54,  82,  88,  129,  130,  132,  496 
Sanday,  7,   40,  44,   52,  ^T,  81,  83, 

128,    204,    216-218,    229,    230, 

260,  276,  516 
Sanday  &  Headlam,  46,  63,  65,  69, 

202,    204,    220,   232,    313,   386, 

409,  410,  438,  440,  456 
Sayings  of  the  Jewish  Fathers,  381 
Schmidt,  N.,  230 
Schmidt,  P.  W.,  231,  271,  293,  303, 

307.  318,  355,  504 
Schmiedel,  5,  10,  18,  34,  35,  60,  81, 

82,  90,  152,  163,  164,  171,  173, 

176,    185-189,    249,    268,    276, 

280,    300,    303-306,    323,    325, 

326,    338,  358,   359.  374,    375. 

380,  421,  522 
Schiirer,  150,  425 
Seeberg,  A.,  20,  223,  230,  253,  312 
Sieffert,  13,  31.  38,  45,  46 
Smith,  Goldvvin,  260,  483 
Smith,  James,  16,  521 
Soltau,  363,  389 
Spitta,  22,  63,  238,  437 
Stanton,  57,  308,  381,  527 
Steck,  14,  56,  74,  75,  244,  301 
Sturm,  202,  233,  235,  241,  242,  267, 

268,  270,  293,  297,  329,  517 
"Supernatural  Religion,"  159,  323, 

501 
Swete,  323,  326,  335,  339,  342,  377 

TertuUian,  23,  24,  37,  58,  80,   127, 

382 
Testament  of  Hezekiah,  23,  24,  27 
Testaments  of  the  XII.  Patriarchs, 

20,  115,  116,  127 
Thackeray,  H.  St.  John,  67,  184,  239, 

273 
Thessalonians  I. — 

Authorship,  4,  17-23,  74,  89,  498 
Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  154, 
210,  215,  216,  219,  227,  248, 
258,  259,  289,  309,  319,  331, 
345,346,453,504,514,515.517; 
(2)  the  life  of  the  Cimrch,  380, 
383-  391.  436,  441,  444-446,  454, 
480,  492 


INDEX 


533 


Thessalonians  II. — 

Authorship,  4,  22,  24-28,  499,  500 

Relation  to  (i)  the  Gospels,  234, 

235,   518;  (2)  the   life   of   the 

Church,  383,  441,  446,  453 

Titius,  202,  204,  212,  233,  243,  245, 

254,  268,  316,  318 

Uhlhorn,  463,  465 

Van  Manen,  6ff,  14,  15,  18,  35,  51- 
53.  56-58,  60,  63-65,  71,  76, 
113,  155,  167,  169,  387,  497, 
498,  522 

Vienne  and  Lyons,  Epistle  of  the 
Churches  of,  24,  117,  127 

Vischer,  4,  490,  499,  507,  523 

Von  Dobschutz,  86,  103,  182,  202, 
218,    257,    276,    285,    299,  306, 

307.   383,  393,  395.  435.  439. 

460,   461,   463,  468,  472,  501, 
510,  524,  525 

Von  Soden,  4,  18,  89,  94,  105,  107, 

109,    III,    112,  143,  150,  216, 

360,  361,   389,  402,  497,  499, 
500,  510,  522 

Watkins,  H.  W.,  348 

Weber,  V.,  29-31,  35,  225,  374 

Weinel,    197,    297,   424,   444,    445, 

454,  476,  479,  480,   499.    505- 
507 


V^eiss,  B.,   4,  8,  9,   36,   45-47 

49, 

52,  62,  76,  83,  97,  103,  109, 

123- 

126,    129,    132,    137,    138, 

142. 

184,    186,    188,   20 r,   267, 

305. 

315.  335.  338 

Weiss,  J.,   150,   151,  200,  211, 

214, 

216,  218,  275,  360 

Weizsacker,    18,  82,   161,  166, 

185, 

276 

Wendt,  27,   160,  202,  204,  219, 

221, 

233,   241,   245,   246,    253, 

268, 

276,  285,  288,  335 

Wernle,  40,  43,  59,    193,  268, 

451, 

474.   481,    482,    492,  501, 

509. 

510 

Westcott,  Bishop,  65,  260,  281 

325. 

386-526 

Westminster,  Dean  of,  100,  225 

258, 

328,  341,  484,  499 

Wisdom,   Book  of,  209,    212, 

290, 

386,  387 

Wrede,    4,   24,   336,  498,  499, 

508, 

509,  523,  528 

Wright,  A.,  223,  276 

Zahn,  4,  8,   29,  38,  40,  45,  75,  79, 

109,  117,    129,    133,    137,    138, 

149,  159,    160,    191,    202,    240, 

241,  245,   275,    276,    312,    323, 

333,  341.   343.    356,    368,    374, 
442,  476,  477,  502,  513 
Zockler,  46,  182,  183,  201,  202,  204, 
325 


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